


Power Rangers AU-Sanders Sides

by Its_Pronounced_Quoassoint



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, F/F, First work - Freeform, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Other, POWER RANGERS AU, mentioned minor character(s) death(s), not beta read cause we die like my mental stability, this is honestly me being too salty to make a voltron au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 168,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27673691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Its_Pronounced_Quoassoint/pseuds/Its_Pronounced_Quoassoint
Summary: Roman Reeves and his twin brother Remus had grown up loving the stories of the power rangers, they were his heroes, the world's heroes. But ten years ago all but one of them disappeared. And now the brothers and their friends have been chosen to take their places and help the Black Ranger-their school guidance counsellor-take down Prince Virgilius and the Dragon Witch.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), creativity twins - Relationship
Comments: 26
Kudos: 77





	1. Red and Green

Roman wasn't the biggest fan of fifth hour. Sure, school would be out soon and he wouldn't have to deal with the disgrace of a teacher his peers had nicknamed 'Ms. Demon', but that simply wasn't good enough. An hour in her class felt like months to Roman and his B- reflected that perfectly. Roman felt the world grind to a halt and begin a sluggish jog the second that fifth hour bell rang and there was no way of getting out of it. The only upsides to the class were his passing grade and the ability to listen to music without his teacher realizing. Most of the time Roman found himself discretely nodding his head to a spotify broadway playlist and doodling aimlessly, wishing to whoever could read his thoughts, that something interesting would happen.

On this particularly sunny day, his prayers would receive an answer.

'Ms. Demon' was twenty minutes into her monotone explination of another pre-calc unit, when the alarm system went off. Roman along with thirty other sleep-deprived teenagers jumped and looked around panicked. If he remembered correctly, this alarm meant they were under attack yet again.

Fricking Dragon Witch always interrupting me while I'm listening to The Prom, Roman thought, begrudgingly taking out his earbuds.

The P.A. system crackled to life and everyone turned to face the speakers.

"Students, remain calm, this is not a drill, we are under attack." The voice of the vice-principal stated, clearly shaken. "Your instructions are as follows, leave your belongings where you are and stay in your classrooms. I repeat, stay calm and stay in you-"

The power cut off. People began quietly standing up and searching for their phones. A few students even began a hesitant walk to the door. Roman felt his heart beat and breathing quicken as a girl in his class opened the door and examined the hall, no other students had dared to walk the hallways. It was eerily quiet in the school as the hairs on Roman's arms and neck stood up. Suddenly a scream down the hall echoed to everyone's horror, followed by the collapsing of a wall and thunderous yells of fear and anguish. A wave of students began racing down the hall. Screaming and crying filled Roman's ears.

Roman jumped up, he shoved his phone and ear buds in his pocket and hopped over desks to get out of the door. He looked down the hall to see a part of the building completely in rubble and more students running for cover. He began following the crowd, helping fallen students and frantically searching for his brother.

Remus has world economics this hour I think. Run, run, turn left, run, on your right. Find Remus, find Remus. Roman began chanting instructions to himself. He reached Remus' classroom and looked inside to find it empty. Hoping that his twin had run for cover with the others, Roman ran to leave the school. He continued calling Remus's name and ran himself winded, letting the crowd pull him along. Remus was nowhere to be found. Roman's twin was strangely tall and wore obnoxious clothing, so he should be easy to spot, but as hard as Roman tried, he couldn't see him.

Roman stopped where he was, a mistake as he soon learned after getting run into by several other students. He knew his brother would have grabbed his phone, so Roman pulled up Snapchat and checked the map to see if Remus was there. He found the icon and saw that Remus was quickly leaving the McDonald's across the street.

"Remus I swear." Roman grumbled and continued his run.

He made it out of the school and was immediately bombarded by the sound of the fight behind him. Roman wasted no time racing to find Remus.

"Remus! Remus! Where are you?! For godsake Remus! I will-"

"ROMAN!!!" Remus' screeching was heard above the crowd and Roman ran to him.

"You were at McDonald's!?!?!" Roman scolded once he had reached Remus.

"I was skipping alright! You try sitting in that class for an hour everyday!" Remus retaliated.

"I do sit in that class for an hour everyday Remus!" Roman yelled back.   
Remus looked like he was going to give a snarky retort, but suddenly he grabbed Roman's shirt and pulled the both of them to the right. Roman stumbled around and looked to where he had previously been standing, to see that Remus had pulled him away from falling debris just in time. He shook off Remus's hand and the two began sprinting for cover behind the nearest building.

The twins leaned against it, catching their breaths. Roman ran his hands along his face, wiping off sweat and dust. He decided to sneak a look at the battle from where he was and peeked around the brick building. There the Black Ranger was wielding his axe and attacking the Dragon Witches's minions. He sliced through several of them and proceeded to dash through another horde of them, cutting each one down. Roman watched, mesmerized, barely noticing Remus move beside him to watch the battle unfold. The aliens appeared to have stopped arriving and the Black Ranger made quick work of the remaining ones. The battle looked almost won.

Then Roman saw it. A hurling ball of purple fire rappidly falling from the sky. The Black Ranger didn't seem to have noticed it and Roman began to fear he wouldn't have time as it continued its descent. Suddenly he felt his body get the best of him and Roman jumped out from his hiding place.

"BLACK RANGER, ABOVE YOU!!!!" Roman shouted.

"What the hell are you-" Remus tried to pull him back, but looked over to see the Black Ranger narrowly dodge out of the way of the purple fire.

More fire began raining from the sky directed at the Black Ranger who managed to dodge it the best he could.

"Can you just stop moving!" A voice suddenly yelled out.

A humanoid figure dropped from the sky and looked at the Black Ranger, more annoyed than angry, certainly a change from the typical attacker. The villain's black and purple armor spiked up and circled their body. Six purple eyes glowed bright under the shadow cast by their hair and pointed crown. Considering the other cartoonish monsters the Black Ranger has fought, this one was pretty minimalistic.

"Sorry, but I don't exactly plan on dying any time soon." The Black Ranger stated. "You on the other hand-"

"Yes, yes, justice will be served, peace will be restored, blah blah, trust me buddy, no one wants me dead more than I do m'kay." The villain crossed their arms and shook their head. "But look, my mom is pissed and if I die she's just gonna bring me back and have me fight you all over again. So do us both a favor and let me capture you."

"Not a chance!"

"Ugh." The villain threw their head back and whined. "Why can't this ever be easy."

"Being evil will never be easy as long as heroes are around to stop you!"

"I. Get. It." The villain puncutated each word with a clap. "Look, just turn yourself in and let's get this over with."

"I'll never surrender to you!"

"Great." The villain groaned again before disappearing and reappearing behind the Black Ranger.

The Ranger turned around and blocked the purple fire that was blasted at him. He continued dodging each fireball thrown. The fight continued as the villain lobbed purple fire and the Black Ranger battled on the defensive, clearly trying to minimize futher damage. Then, an opening appeared and the Ranger charged, shoving his axe at the villain who dodged and blasted him with fire on the back. The Ranger fell to the ground in pain and accidentally dropped the axe as he rolled. He began crawling to his weapon as the villain approached.

"Remus! We gotta help!" Roman whisper-yelled at his brother.

"Why?!" Remus exclaimed.

"C'mon just grab something!" Roman told him.

Remus and Roman quietly snuck out of their hiding place and each grabbed the closest heavy object. Roman found a street sign that had been uprooted while Remus grabbed the nearest trash can. The two snuck closer to the villain and Ranger as fast as they could.

"I'm not gonna do any of that 'any last words?' stuff." They said, looming over the Black Ranger, fire swirling around their hand as it pointed at his chest. "We both know I'm not gonna kill you so-"

That was when Remus full-force chucked the trash can at the back of the Villain. They stumbled and flailed a little before regaining composure and turning to face the brothers.

"Ow, what the-dude!" They rubbed the back of their neck.

Roman chose that moment to swing the sign at the at the villain who teleported away.

"You have no clue what your doing now, do ya?" The villain asked from behind the two condescendingly.

"Wha-"

Suddenly, the Black Ranger's axe was thrown into the villain's side. They winced and looked down at the wound. Roman saw as purple blood began seeping out of their newest gash.

"Dammit." The villain said flatly before disappearing, the axe dropping to the ground.

Roman and Remus looked around for them fervently.

"Don't worry, he's not coming back." The Ranger told them, in clear pain.

"He isn't?" Roman asked.

"No, but he'll be sending more minions to attack us. You two need to run." The Ranger told them.

"No way! You're hurt!" Roman protested.

"How did you get hurt anyway, doesn't that suit make you basically indistrucable?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"To some weaker attacks yes, but a full strength blast from Prince Virgilius is gonna hurt bad." The Ranger winced.

"I didn't understand anyting you just told me." Remus stated matter-of-factly.

"That's because you have an I.Q. of negative twenty." Roman sneered.

"Says the one who almost failed seventh grade social studies." Remus retorted.

"Geography is a hack and you know it!" Roman huffed.

Remus looked ready to say something in return, but was cut-off when hordes of minions began spilling into the Earth through a breach in dimension.

"Like I said, minions." The Black Ranger sighed. "Run."

Roman raced beside the Ranger and put his left arm over Roman's shoulders. He began helping the Ranger along and the three began trying to get away from the swarms of minions, but were caught up to quickly.

"Roman, you need to leave me so I can fend them off. You and Remus have to run." The Black Ranger told them.

"No, you need help Sir, we can't let you-" Roman started.

"How does he know my name?" Remus asked no one in perticular.

"-protect us when you're injured and I know you're the Black Ranger, but you can't fight all of them off alone!" Roman finished.

"Please listen!" The Ranger interrupted the both of them. "We don't have much time before we're completely surrounded, so you two better start running!"

"We are not leaving you!"

"You don't decide who I can and cannot leave behind Roman!" Remus screeched.

"Will you shut up!" Roman stopped him. "I'm sorry, but like I said, Power Ranger or not, you shouldn't be fighting alone like this. So, Remus, grab the nearest stabby-thing and let's help him defend Earth from aliens."

It was quiet for a bit. The Ranger didn't seem to want to argue any longer and was more focused on the massive amount of aliens running toward the three. Remus laced his fingers together in front of his face like he was praying and looked at Roman.

"Ro Ro-"

"Please don't call me that."

"You had me at 'stabby-thing'." Remus sighed before turning away and beginning his search for said 'stabby-thing'.

Roman did the same, quickly scrambling over to pick up the sign he had used earlier. Roman stood next to the Ranger and smiled at him. Preparing himself for the battle before him. Then the minions were on them.

One after another the monsters attacked Roman and the Ranger. Roman slapping one with the sign and forcefully jabbed at the others. He swung the sign around and tried to knock out as many as possible. He wasn't as effective as the Ranger, who though he was hurt, had an actual weapon that could hurt the minions.

Roman realized his brother was no longer in his line of sight and accidentally let his guard down. Remus, stop going where I can't see you- Roman's thoughts were interrupted as one of the aliens grabbed him and held him down. Roman struggled against the grip and tried to pull himself free, but to no avail.

Then, something happened. Roman wished he had been able to fully see what was actually going on, but all he really understood was; a red glowing object had come from nowhere and wrapped itself around Roman's right wrist.

"Roman!" The Black Ranger called from a ways away. "Listen to me!"

"Okay!" Roman yelled back, trying to get a better look at what had just attached itself to his wrist, but the minion just tightened its grip.

"I need you to say, 'Red Ranger, activate!'." The Black Ranger told him, trying to keep his voice steady as he fended off the monsters.

"What!?!" Roman squeaked.

"Say it! Trust me!!" The Ranger called.

"Red Ranger!! Activate!!!" Roman yelled.

Then his world dissolved. Everything was gone, no monsters, no Ranger, no Remus, nothing. Just a blank area. Roman looked around, it was silent except for his own shuffling as Roman stood up. Roman looked toward his hand, finding a red bracelet that had wrapped around his right wrist, seeping red light. The light spread, covering Roman's body. It began to solidify into armor. Roman closed his eyes to protect himself from the brightness, only to open them and find his head in a helmet. He stared at his body, now covered in a suit similar to that of the Black Ranger. In front of him a red glowing blob began taking form. Roman stared, bewildered, as the red light formed a sword, the blade jagged and intricately designed, the hilt pointed toward Roman, as if imploring him to take hold of it. Roman complied, gripping the sword tight, and closing his eyes once again as he was fully enveloped in red light.

Roman opened his eyes and found himself standing in a small clearing of monsters. The minions staring at him an awe. Roman felt a grin stretch across his face as he brought the sword back a little and thrust it forward into one of the monsters. It collapsed into dust and Roman continued. The monsters fell out of their daze and Roman made his way to the Black Ranger helping him cut each of the aliens down.

\---

A long ways away, Remus was running like a mad man trying to escape the aliens who had followed him. He cursed them and their bloodline, soon finding his breath shortnening. He cursed his dramatic brother one last time before collapsing on the ground. He took in several deep breaths and tried to get up, only to have his vision turn blurry and his head spin. The boy fell back down again, waiting for the aliens to come and eat him alive. However, before he could meet his demise, Remus felt a sharp pressure apply itself to his left wrist. A cool metal object had encircled around him and Remus could feel it pulse a little. He tried to look at it but was once again met with a dizzy, sickening feeling.

Then, his world was white.

\---

Roman saw from the other side of the block as a green flash exploded from the ground. Before he could ask the Black Ranger what that was about, he was attacked by another swarm of aliens. Which he made quick work of. The ground became littered in dust and it looked like the aliens were losing their high numbered advantage.

"Roman!" Remus' voice cut across the courtyard.

"What?!" Roman shouted back snappily.

Roman turned to his brother's voice and saw a suit much like his own and the Black Ranger's, but green. Remus barreled toward the two swinging a spiky mace in his hands. He turned several of the minions to nothing and met Roman and the Black Ranger in the middle of it all.

\--

Soon, each alien had been destroyed and the three stood among dust.

"This is amazing." Remus breathed swiftly. He swung the mace around playfully.

"This is insane." Roman nodded aggressively. Catching his breath forthe first time in a while. "Are-are we Rangers now?"

"Welcome to the team." The Black Ranger laughed weakly. He grabbed his side yet again and looked at the twins. "You two need to come with me."


	2. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan's best friend Roman is keeping a serious secret. He's just not any good at it and as usual Logan has to save his sorry butt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Trans!Logan, Logan centric story line, Logan being a gay disaster for Patton, and Virgil flirting(??)
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: mild violence, food mention, panic attack mention, use of deadname, sympathetic Remus

Logan was baffled as to how none of his other friends had picked up on the fact that Roman and Remus were the newest Power Rangers. The two were constantly leaving their friends the second aliens appeared, only for the Green and Red Rangers to appear in battle. Both seemed constantly distracted by news about the Dragon Witch. Whenever a battle was over, Remus and Roman reappeared, most of the time with messy hair and some bruising, one time Remus actually had to limp back to their friends. All of this is without even mentioning how the two react when the topic of the Green and Red Rangers comes up.

Logan took a mental note of the twins' bizzarre behavior when the Rangers were brought up in conversation.

A few days after the new Rangers first appeared Logan, Roman, and a few other friends had decided to meet up at the local grocery store to buy and eat snacks. It didn't take long for the group to bring up the Green and Red Rangers and took even less time for Roman to start completely shutting down. While their friends theorized as to who the Rangers might be, Logan observed Roman as he shut his mouth, blushed a deep red, and left. Only to return twenty minutes later.

Next, Logan noticed that whenever the Green Ranger specifically was brought up, Remus had to interject every few minutes with some form of crude compliment. This behavior wouldn't be too outlandish for Remus, but the compliments began to overlap with compliments that Remus only gave himself.

Lastly, Logan realized that whenever Roman was asked about the Green Ranger he scoffed, much like he does when someone compares him to Remus.

While Remus, whenever the subject of the Red Ranger is brought up, crosses his arms, huffs, and falls quiet. Much like he does when someone compliments Roman and not him.

The two were so overwhelmingly obvious about their identities as the Red and Green Rangers that Logan had to wonder if he was the only slightly intelligent person in their town.

When Logan came to the conclusion about his friend, Roman, and friend-by-association, Remus, he accepted it, and decided not to ask. Considering neither of them could keep thier mouths shut-one of the few things the twins had in common-their reasons for not telling the whole world must be important.

. . .

Since school had closed Logan was several times dragged from his home by overly eager friends. This day, Roman had grabbed Logan from his content atmosphere and pulled him into hanging out downtown. Logan and Roman were walking around for a few minutes while Roman chatted about The Prom yet again.

"You wanna get some ice cream from Twisters?" Roman asked.

"At eleven in the morning?" Logan asked.

"C'mon it's like nintey degrees!" Roman groaned.

"Roman it's barely 70 degrees right now and-"

"Too late! I'm already buying!" Roman took a turn into the Twisters parking lot and walked up to the shop.

"If you were going to buy one no matter what I said, why even ask?" Logan asked.

"It's courteous to at least ask." Roman explained, opening the door for Logan to walk into the ice cream shop. 

"Not if you completely disregard what the person's answer is going to be. At that point it's more courteous to not ask." Logan argued.

"Shush-shut up." Roman shushed him by shoving a hand at Logan's face.

"How many times do I have to remind you about personal space Roman?"

"Logan shut it!" Roman whisper-yelled.

"Why?" Logan asked.

"Patton!" Roman whispered a half explination. He quickly went to stand in the small line, clearly trying to hide himself.

"What?" Logan attempted to peer around his friend for a look, but was halted by Roman. "Is Patton here?"

"Definitely." Roman nodded curtly. "Don't look!"

Logan rolled his eyes and looked anyway. Roman was right. Patton Valentine sat in a small booth, typing on a laptop, and occasionally taking a spoonful of ice cream. Logan felt his face heat up drastically and he moved to hide himself in the line like Roman.

Patton Valentine. There was something about this boy that made Logan so confused. Upon first meeting him, Logan got the impression that he was just another bright and ditzy person who would eventually escape Logan's memories as high school finished.

Within a week that prediction was thrown out of the metaphorical window.  
In sixth grade Logan had deemed Patton to be his most threatening rival. A rival in what, Logan didn't know, but he was a threat nonethless and Logan had to learn everything about Patton to prepare himself for the moment he turned on Logan.

After spending months, as Roman would call it, 'obsessing' over Patton, he realized the strong feeling he was acting on was not a competitive passion. Instead, it was a deeply developed feeling of adoration and affection.  
Feelings are so overrated. Logan found himself thinking as he put his hands to his face to try and stop the rush of blood that turned his skin pink.

It was their turn to order and Roman asked the girl at the counter for a chocolate brownie double. Logan asked for a vanilla scoop with jelly on top and the two stood, waiting for their ice cream.

"You're face is so red." Roman snorted a little and laughed.

"Shut it." Logan mumbled, continuing to hide his face farther into his hands. "It was your idea for us to get ice cream."

"Well, I didn't know that the most popular person in the school was gonna be here." Roman seethed. "Do you really think I would have brought us here if I knew 'Patton-I-have-5-million-subscribers-on-YouTube-Valentine' was gonna be here!"

"Roman! Logan!"

Logan lifted his head to see who had called their names, though he knew who it was.

Patton was giddily waving at the two, smiling bright. Oh god that smile, Logan's brain betrayed him and quickly tried to clear his head.

"H-hey Patton." Roman squeaked, returning the wave. 

"You two wanna sit with me?" Patton asked.

Logan and Roman turned to each other, both exchanging a silent conversation before Roman answered.

"Yeah sure!"

Patton gave the two an even brighter smile and Logan felt the world sway a little.  
Logan and Roman were given their ice cream and went over to sit with Patton. Logan took careful glances at Patton and noticed a few things. His hair wasn't typically so curly and his shoes weren't the regular red Vans. They were a neon light blue and reminiscent of Converse high-tops, but had a different logo. Why Patton Valentine was wearing off-brand Converse, Logan had no idea.

"So, what were you working on?" Roman asked. At least Roman can talk.

"Oh! Well my sister Megan works here so I get discounts on ice cream and there's free Wi-Fi. So, I figured I would get some editing done on my next video." Patton explained.

It was quiet for a beat before Logan figured he should say something to make himself less awkward.

"Um, your shoes look new." Logan started quietly.

"Oh yeah!" Patton brightened up and showed them off to the two. "They're my new favorite shoes! My mom got 'em for me. She's so sweet."

"They look nice on you." Logan sputtered out.

"Aww, thanks Lo! I think they look pretty snazzy." Patton giggled. "Look, this is the best part."

Patton stood up and walked down the isle of the shop, Then turned and briskly walked back the way he came. Suddenly he popped back on his heels and rolled by the table with a smile. 

Heelys. He's wearing heelys. Logan thought, confounded by his own mind. Why is him wearing heelys so cute?

"You've got heelys!" Roman cheered.

"Sure do!" Patton giggled, rolling back to their table and and sitting down. 

This doesn't make sense. They're probably the most inconvienent, childish form of footwear. Yet when he wears them, I can't think of a single reason as to why he shouldn't. Logan felt his face flush yet again as a small smile betrayed his otherwise stoic face.

"I think I used to have a pair of-"

BOOM

Screaming and sounds of destruction sounded from across the street and everyone turned to see a breach open on the other side of the road. Minions from the Dragon Witch came flooding from the breach and began attacking everything in sight. 

"Oh gosh." Logan heard Patton whisper. "Oh no, no, no." The boy continued to trail off.

"I-I-" Roman started. He looked at his friends helplessly before shouting out.

"Everyone run!"

The shocked crowd followed Roman's call and proceeded to race out the back of the shop and run away. Logan looked to Patton, who seemed frozen to his seat, and sent him a pleading look. Patton looked from Logan to the monsters, then back to Logan before shakily standing up and reaching for Logan's hand. At any other time Logan would have been startled by the physical contact and, because it was Patton, could have melted into a mess of blushing and stuttering.

However, given the situation, he instead pulled Patton along with the crowd and brought them out of the shop.

"Are you okay?" Logan asked as they continued to run.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay, just um, just shock." Patton offered.

Logan could tell there was something more, but decided not to press. Instead he focused on running for his life. They continued the run before Logan abruptly stopped. Causing Patton to quickly stop as well so he wouldn't run into him.

"Roman!" Logan realized. "Roman, we're not with Roman."

"Where'd he go? I thought he was running with us!" Patton looked around, panicked.

"I-I have to go find him." Logan told Patton.

"Okay let's go-"

"No, Patton, you should keep going. I can find him on my own." Logan stated, already turning to leave.

"Logan I'm-"

"Get to safety please!" Logan dropped Patton's hand and started running.

Patton stood staring at Logan, mystified, but did as Logan told him and ran with the crowd to a safe place.

Logan raced back to the shop in search of Roman. When he didn't find him he ran back out of the shop and around the back, only to find Roman standing there, clearly annoyed, looking around nervously. Logan was about to call out to him, but was cut off when Remus ran into the alleyway looking more deshelved than usual.

"Where have you been!?" Roman asked.

"You're not the only one with friends Roman!" Remus retorted.

"You took forever." Roman scoffed.

"You don't have to wait for me!" Remus sneered.

"And go in alone! I don't wanna get killed."

"Oh get over it!" Remus rolled his eyes dramatically and turned to the green band on his wrist. "Green Ranger, activate!!"

Roman waved his arms exasperatedly before turning to his own bracelet. "Red Ranger, activate!!"

Logan watched as the two became shrowded in bright light before revealing themselves to be their respective Rangers. The two hopped into battle and Logan watched, bewildered, yet satisfied. His theory was correct and he just watched his proof run off to fight monsters.

Logan watched the fight unfold. The Black Ranger cut down minion after minion with ease, instructing the other two occasionally. Roman used his sword to bring his enemies to dust and yell at Remus to follow some 'plan'. Remus apparently wasn't following any plan, but still got the job done by smacking monsters with his spiked mace. The minions' numbers seemed to be dwindling, until the breach closed completely and all minions were destroyed. Logan thought the three would fall back and change back out of their Ranger armor, but instead they stood there. Waiting. Then Logan saw it, a clouded black figure appeared on top of the building.

"Prince Virgilius!" Roman addressed the figure.

"Sup Red!" This 'Prince Virgilius' nodded.

Remus snickered, but stopped abruptly when Roman gave him a look.

"You can't keep doing this!" Roman told him.

"You're so formal Red. Maybe you should lighten up a bit. Don't be such a copy-paste protagonist! " Virgilius groaned, leaning back.

"You are really formal." Remus agreed.

"Remus-I-just-ah," Roman stuttered a response. "Shut up!"

Eloquient as ever. Logan thought.

Suddenly Virgilius disappeared and reappeared next to Roman, making him scream and jump back.

"Is that like your one trick. Popping up like a creepy villain?!"

"It still gets you so, yeah." Virgilius shurgged and disappeared yet again.

"Can't you take any of this seriously?!" Roman yelled to nothing.

"I mean I could." Virgilius yelled back from a top the ice cream shop. The three Rangers turned. "But you just look so cute when you're mad."

"You can't see my face." Roman pointed out.

"Can we just get on with it please?" The Black Ranger shouted tearing away their attention.

"Yeah seriously, the flirting never gets us anywhere." Remus stated, annoyance dripping from his voice.

He chucked the mace at Virgilius who disappeared before it could hit him.

"Ugh." Remus growled at the area his mace had missed.

Logan watched as the weapon disappated into green light, only to reappear back in Remus's hand. The three closed together and began looking around for the prince, but no one was found. 

"Fan out a little." Roman told the other two.

The Black and Green Rangers nodded and the three split off. Each taking wary steps in different directions, guards up. Logan looked around as well, the hairs on his arms standing up.

A bright flash caught his attention and Logan saw a purple fireball headed straight for Roman. Logan ran from his hiding place and called for Roman to run. The Red Ranger looked his way and Logan tackled his friend to the ground, both of them barely missing the fire ball.

"Logan what are you doing!" Roman shoved Logan away. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I just saved your life you ungrateful-" Logan suddenly felt something clasp around his wrist. He looked down.

A bracelet. A simple, fine chain that was glowing brighter by the second.

"Logan!" Roman gasped. "I need you to yell 'Blue Ranger, activate!'. Now! Do it now!

"I-uh-okay. Um, Blue Ranger, activate!!" Logan let out the words and looked at Roman pleadingly.

Logan was then enveloped by the light and left in a blank world. Armor began covering his body and a blue lance shimmered into existence in front of him. Logan felt his body react before his mind, and he grabbed the lance.

The world came back into view. Logan was standing tall as Roman looked at him excitedly. Logan turned around to see the Green and Black Rangers also staring at him.

He didn't know what it was, but Logan felt a sense of completeness rush through him. He looked around, a little unsure of what to do, but the other Rangers joined him, standing by his side, ready to defeat the prince.

"Oh come on!! Seriously?!" Prince Virgilius exclaimed in frustration. "Gods help me. How many more of you are there?!"

Logan looked at the other Rangers, waiting a response.

"Our numbers are growing Virgilius! Yours will only dwindle from here! Give up now!" Roman pointed his sword at the enemy.

"Wow." Virgilius sighed. "I don't like you."

"The feeling is mutual." Roman nodded. "Remus, now!"

Remus chucked his mace at the Prince yet again, only for him to disappear. The Rangers closed ranks yet again, standing back to back, at the ready. Suddenly Virgilius appeared a while away and shot a fireball right at the Black Ranger. Logan swung his lance, stopping the fireball before it could hit the other Ranger.

"Welcome to the team." The Black Ranger told him.

\---

Logan was on his way home, and reviewing the information he had been told earlier.

Mr. Sanders-or Thomas as Logan was told to call him-was the Black Ranger. He had been Logan's guidance counsellor all through high school. Thomas had told Logan about Prince Virgilius and how had been the general of the Dragon Witch's army for the past few years and proved himself to be as dangerous as the Dragon Witch herself.

Logan was supposed to go back to Thomas's house tomorrow with Roman and learn more about the morphers and their power. Thomas didn't want to overwhelm Logan with all of Ranger history, so he sent Logan home.

Logan examined the bracelet that was now wrapped around his wrist. The material it was made of swirled randomly like a kaleidoscope. Logan could stare at it all day, trying to find a pattern.

As he approached his house Logan took a deep breath, ready for what was about to come.

"Maddie!" The voice of his little sister called out from the door. "Maddie come on! Lauren's trying to make dinner and Mama's on FaceTime!"

"I'm coming Nora." Logan replied.

He walked up to the house and into the kitchen where it looked like his sister was preparing food.

"Maddie, I swear Lauren's gonna poison us again if you don't get over there."

"Hey!" Lauren protested. "I'm a good cook."

"Not as good as Maddie though." Nora said as she passed by.

"Is that Maddie?" The voice is Logan's mother came from an iPad that was set up in FaceTime. "How's my favorite daughter?"

"I'm good Mama." Logan told her.

She couldn't see it, but Logan's expression immediately fell as he turned away. With his mom's job constantly moving her from hotel to hotel, it became easier to avoid coming out to her.

"You know, we're right here." Lauren pointed out to her mom.

"Well you're also the biggest thorns in my side at the moment." Mama sighed. "Now do what your sister says so she can make dinner."

Lauren groaned but turned to Logan expectantly.

"Can you just dry off that pan? I'll make chicken soup and bread." Logan sighed.

"Sounds great Madds." Nora called from the couch

"Oh I wish I was there." Mama sighed.

"We know Mama." Lauren told her.

"I'm gonna have to turn this thing off and head to bed, but you kids stay safe okay. I heard there was an attack earlier today. I'm just happy none of you got hurt." Logan's mom began shuffling papers near her.

"Mama, you don't have to worry." Nora yelled from the couch. "The Rangers are here to protect us you know!"

"Well thanks for that." Mama rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'm about three hours ahead of you so I've really gotta go. Get home earlier Maddie, maybe I'll actually be able to talk to you!"

"You got it Mama." Logan smiled at her, and waved goodbye.

She cut the call and Logan turned to his sisters.

"You're never gonna tell Mama are you Lo?" Lauren asked sadly, not facing him. "You know she'd be okay with it."

"Lauren I haven't had the proper chance. I also must point out we don't actually know if she will be okay with me being transgender."

"If she doesn't accept you then we're running away from here. You're getting into a fancy college and becoming some sort of millionaire." Lauren finally faced him. "Logan, we've got you."

"I know Laurie. It's just not the right time." Logan sighed.

"Alright. That's okay, I don't wanna pressure you. I mean it I really don't. It's just, she's gonna start asking questions when she gets home. I don't want you to go through another panic attack because you aren't wearing a binder in front of Mama."

"Lauren." Nora chastised from the couch. "Would you lay off him."

"I-I'm sorry Logan. I just-well you-oh-you know what I'm trying to say! I don't want you to go through that again. I mean you've been doing so well this year and it's the year Mama's been around the least."

"Lauren, I know what you're trying to say." Logan sighed. "I'll be okay. I know I can go to you if I get overwhelmed when she gets home."

Lauren nodded and went back to drying off the recently washed pan.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound insensitive Lo. I really didn't." Lauren started again. "But you know you can't keep this up much longer. She's gonna find out and it's better that it came from you."

"I'm aware."

"Lauren would you just drop it!" Nora called from the couch.

"Okay. I-I," Lauren sighed. "okay. I'm sorry."

"It's natural for you to be worried Lauren, don't feel bad." Logan tried to reassure her.

"Just know when to stop." Nora chided.

It fell quiet after that.


	3. Pink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton Valentine the popular youtuber has been hiding a part of his past from the world, but now he has no choice but to tell his new-found friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter Features: YouTuber!Patton, Patton centric story line
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: crying, angst, mentions of dead characters, reluctantcy, sympathetic Remus

Patton kept a diary. When he was younger he would stay up late at night, using pens to write in composition notebooks. Assigning different colors to different days of the week, doodling in the margins, dating every page in the top right corner, and taking time to think of a title for each day. At the bottom of every page Patton would rate how well the day was on a scale of one to five and doodle a little face that showed how he felt.

Keeping a diary was one of the few constants in Patton's life. After so much change and heartbreak, holding on to something, as silly as diary keeping, made Patton's time a little more enjoyable.

When he received his first phone, Patton decided that a digital diary would be more convenient. He downloaded a simple note taking app, and began writing about his day there.

The advantage to a digital diary was he could write wherever he wanted. Patton sat on the bus to school, typing fervently. It was their first day back since the last attack and he had not gotten enough homework done as he would have liked. Patton was letting out some feelings onto his phone and listening to the chatter of the kids around him.

Patton is very aware of the fact that many of them were staring at him in awe. Especially the middle schoolers. Typically his audience on YouTube was middle schoolers. He knew having a few million subscribers got him attention and Patton had accepted that attention as part of his everyday life. It meant nothing to him now. A sort of bitter exchange. He didn't feel the nervousness he used to when people approached him for pictures. The right feelings he got when young minds randomly appeared next to him and wanted to ask about being a YouTuber. However, that also meant he didn't get the rush of happiness when some small kid praised or thanked him. He didn't really feel that delighted feeling of pride anymore.

Patton typed on his phone until the bus pulled up to the high school. Patton stepped off the bus after almost tripping over several small kids in the bus isle. He began rolling up to the school, warm humid air hitting him. It had rained horribly the day before and him, along with several other fluffy haired people, were feeling the affects.

Patton opened the doors for a few high schoolers behind him and walked in. Heading for his locker immediately. After gathering his things Patton began taking his bag to his first hour.

"Hey Pat." The familiar voice of Naomi, one of his close friends, greeted him.

"Hey Mi." Patton smiled at her, moving a little in the hall so she could walk next to him.

"How was break?"

"Ugh, did not get any homework for Leed's class done." Patton rolled his eyes. "But, ya know, got some editing finished."

"Well, I don't think the teachers honesty expect us to have gotten anything done." Naomi tried to soothe him.

"Yeah." Patton sighed. They stepped into their shared first hour and continued to talk. A few more friends walked in and began talking with them, but Patton dropped away from them quickly.

He never felt particularly attached to the people in his school. It was hit or miss with people you talked to. Patton was very aware of his social standing as 'the most popular person in high school', but he attributed that to his YouTube channel's success. It wasn't like he didn't have friends. He certainly had people wanting to be his friend. However, it was never the type of connection that Patton would see on tv. No best friend sleepovers, skipping class together, eating cookies late at night while watching Netflix. Patton wasn't proud of the fact that he didn't have a close friend like that, but he figured he should take what he gets.

Besides, he still had friends.

Lunch was an easy time for Patton. He typically sat with Naomi in the library. Sure that's not what one would expect from a popular socialite like Patton, but the cafeteria was simply too loud. Hectic and scary were adjectives Patton often described lunch as. He didn't eat much at lunch either. He never really ate much. There wasn't a lot of time to eat.

Patton often spent his time listening to his friends' problems, studying, doing something for the array of clubs he was in, or editing for YouTube. There wasn't much time for anything else, but that was okay. Patton enjoyed doing all of those-besides studying-so it wasn't like he missed anything. There was nothing to miss when he didn't know of much else he could do.

Mondays were usually not the favorite day of the week for any student, never mind any person. However, they were Patton's favorite. Why? Well, Mondays after school, Patton got to go down to the freshman biology teacher's room and run the QSA at his school. He loved the QSA. He had been going since 8th grade, when he couldn't technically go because he wasn't in high school.

However, he dedicated a lot of time to the QSA and had become the president of the club in junior year. He was elated to be in it and was able to get together a team to spread the word about it and set up fun activities. It was one of the only things about school that Patton documented in his YouTube videos.

Patton didn't like to talk about school too much for fear of it interfering with him graduating, but he was able to take videos of everything that happened with QSA. Much to the delight of his viewers.

Patton sat anxiously in 6th hour, awaiting the final bell that meant he could head down to the club room. Sadly though, sixth hour was just getting under way, so he would have to wait.

"Welcome back to sixth hour!" Patton's calc teacher, Mrs. Ryans began. "I know school only had been a few weeks in when the attacks hit, and it essentially feels like the next semester, but we'll be doing a small project!"

The class cheered a little. Projects for her class were typically easier than usual class work. She would often pair up students to work on it together, making it all the easier on Patton. Usually Mrs. Ryans paired Patton with Logan, who was more than happy to help Patton on the project. Patton loved partnering with Logan, he was understanding of Patton's schedule and never got frustrated with Patton's inability to meet in order to work on the project. Though Patton had heard he was quite the opposite with other partners in different classes.

"So, I didn't really have the time nor the care to make a list of partners, so, your table partners will do for this." Mrs. Ryans sighed.

Patton met Logan's eye with a disappointed look and shrugged. Logan returned the sentiment before looking toward Remus next to him. Logan smacked the snickering idiot.

Patton turned to his table partner Dee and gave him a warm smile that was met with a side smile, reserved for Patton alone.

"Donnie can you pass out the papers?" Mrs. Ryans asked.

"Sure!" Donnie smiled and stood, grabbing the stack of papers that explained the assignment.

"Mrs. Ryans! Dee and I need to be partners." Kayley Holt said a few rows behind Patton.

"Uh, no." Mrs. Ryans trailed off giving Kayley a questioning look.

"But we have to be. We have co-dependency anxiety and we're both super anxious without each other! We have to be partners." Kayley demanded.

Patton looked over to Dee who held a blank expression rivaling Lady Gaga's 'poker face'. Patton could tell he was not happy with the arrangement Kayley was trying to pull.

"You know what Kayley, I know you're lying to me about this so don't even try and pull this stunt again, but fine, you and Dee can be partners. Just don't whine when you two both get Cs on the assignment cause you didn't work." Mrs. Ryans pointed at Kayley. Then pointed at her table partner. "Roman, you'll pair with Patton."

Patton smiled over at Roman who dramatically smiled back.

"This will be due on Friday and I expect it typed, nothing handwritten! Heck knows you people write in hieroglyphics." Mrs. Ryans dismissively waved her hand. "You will have Thursday in class to work on it if you need but if you don't you can just have this as a free hour."

Patton received the paper and began reading over the project. Dee and Roman switched places and the two dove into the work. Dividing it between themselves and scheduling times to meet to work on it.

"Are you free tonight after QSA?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, you?"

"Mhm. I don't think Logan or Remus have anything going on either. We can all kinda work on it together at my place." Roman turned to where Logan and Remus sat across the room. "Logan! Remus! Come here."

Logan and Remus turned to Roman who was waving them over enthusiastically. The two look at each other before Logan shrugged and began walking their way. Logan and Remus sat down across from Patton and Roman, the four began talking about going to the twins' home after QSA to work on the project.

"Well what am I supposed to do while you three are in your club?" Remus asked

"You can come if you want. We're doing some stuff for the underclassmen for homecoming." Patton told Remus.

"I though they called off Homecoming." Roman looked at Pat.

"Well, they did," Patton trailed off. "but the freshmen on the QSA group chat were so upset, I mean I couldn't let them be so disappointed."

"What did you do? Pay 'em off?" Remus whispered.

"What?! No!" Patton whispered back. Not fully knowing why he was whispering, so he stopped. "I just argued to the superintendent that they deserved a Homecoming."

"How? He never changes his mind." Roman smiled.

"Well, I mean, I'm good at convincing people, I guess." Patton shrugged. "But yeah, homecoming is back on."

"None of us go to homecoming though." Roman pointed out.

"Yeah, but the freshmen and sophomores like going and some juniors go and I know I don't have time to go, but they deserve some fun. The town's ten pm curfew doesn't exactly give any kids the chance to hang out with their friends like normal teenagers." Patton explained.

"Well, it's nice for you to do something for them. Having experiences with their friends, like homecoming, will make it all the easier to deal the trauma of the attacks." Logan finally said.

"Thank you Logan." Patton nodded. "Now, is that all settled. We just head to your place after QSA?"

"Yep." Roman nodded.

Patton smiled at him and began texting his foster mother the plan. Class ended a while after that and the four began their walk to the science wing of the school. Heading to Mr. Travis's-the QSA faculty advisor-room. The room was already full of kids from every grade. Eager freshmen were talking nervously to their friends while the other two seniors looked around commenting on how they were used to it by now.

"Hey guys!" Patton said as he entered.

"Patton!" Jana, a sophomore, squeaked when he entered. "I passed the project!"

"I knew you would! You've gotta stop doubting yourself." Patton congratulated her.

"I know, I know." She giggled. "Camera?" Jana put out her hands expectantly.

"Here!" Patton walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out the camera he used for filiming. He handed it to Jana who giddily heded over to tripod and began setting up eqquipment. "Okay everyone, before I begin with what we're doing today can we set up the tables into one long table?"

The group got up from their chairs, still chatting, and began arranging the tables the way Patton had asked. Once done helping, Patton walked to the 'head' of their make-shift table and sat down. Jana started up the cameras and sound and Patton began.

"Homecoming is back on, which means another year of having to find a date, dress nice, and so on. So, what I've decided to do, is spend this week, next week, and however much longer making flower crowns." Patton announced. "I know it's a little childish, but pride flag flower crowns are so much fun to make and afterward you get really good at them"

"I love it." Cami, one of the juniors said.

"Thanks Cami." Patton smiled. "Make some for yourself, make some for our friends, make pride flag ones, make any color ones, doesn't matter, just use all the flowers. I printed out a bunch of instructions on different types of crowns and other jewelry you can make with the flowers. Just have fun with it!"

Mr. Travis entered the room with loads of flowers in his hand and his daughter trailing behind, also carrying many flowers.

"Here we are." He grunted, setting them down.

"Thanks Mr. Travis." Patton smiled. "Let's get started!"

The club dispersed into groups and began making crowns, chatting with their friends, and goofing around. Patton was pulled over to a group of sophomores and freshmen who wanted to talk.

He looked over to see Logan, Roman, and Remus talking quietly while making the crowns. Patton smiled, even Remus was making a pride flag flower crown.

After some time he walked over to Logan, Roman, and Remus. The three stopped talking quickly and focused a little too intensely on the flower crowns.

QSA ended far too quickly for Patton's liking, but he and the three others left for Roman's house soon. They talked the whole way, mainly Remus, and were very quickly entering the home.

Patton and Roman went to the living room and lazily began talking about the project. Logan and Remus went to the dining room and Logan attempted to make progress while Remus threw Cheetos in the air and tried to catch them in his mouth.

Patton looked around the house. It was huge. Large eggshell white walls and intimidating furnishings. It barely looked lived in.

"Hey Roman," Patton started, "can you point me to the bathroom?"

"Yeah sure, the closest one is just down that hallway." Roman pointed to a dark hallway. "I'm pretty sure it's on the right. You'll find it."

"Thanks." Patton smiled.

He got up and headed that way, not quite sure what he was doing. He didn't need to go to the bathroom, but something about the house felt so familiar. He had to find out why. Why did being in the home feel off yet inviting. It didn't make any sense. Patton has always been good at feelings. Knowing what they are in him and observing them in others. This though, this was different.

Patton walked down the hallway toward a door, feeling the pull even more intensely. Every step was pulling him forward. Why was it so familiar?

Patton opened the door and stepped into an extremely dark room. Patton's eyes could barely adjust. Without realizing it he had entered the room and was running his hand along the objects in the room. The feeling grew to an overwhelming point and Patton tried to pull away and go back to the living room, but to no avail. Then something grabbed him. It wrapped around his wrist and tightened into a perfect fit. Patton was finally able to pull his hand back and looked at the thing on his wrist.

A bracelet. Glowing pink and swirling around his wrist.

Patton screamed.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Patton continued. He just stared at the bracelet in horror trying to get it off him as fast as possible.

Patton distantly heard Logan call his name. Pounding footsteps headed his way and the lights around him were flipped on.

Patton barely noticed, he just focused on tearing the bracelet off of him.

"Patton?!" Logan yelled for his attention.

"Get it off, get it off, oh please just get this thing off of me." Patton cried out.

"What?" Roman started, but stopped when Patton turned and showed them the bracelet. "Oh."

"Please just get it off, please, please," Patton suddenly stopped, staring at Remus. "You-you're-"

"Remus!" Roman chided, noticing the mace he had in his hand.

"What? We didn't know why Patton was screaming! It could have been a minion."

"Jeez Remus." Roman shook his head.

"You're the Green Ranger?" Patton asked shakily. "Which one are you Logan?"

"I-uh blue." Logan hurried out an answer.

"Logan! You can't just tell every pretty boy you're the Blue Ranger!" Roman smacked Logan on the shoulder.

"I'm not!" Logan's face turned a bright red.

"Oh this is a disaster." Roman sighed.

"I know." Logan looked away.

"Look, I don't care! I won't tell anyone, I promise! You can trust me! Just please get this off of me! I don't want to be a Ranger please!" Patton begged.

"Patton-"

"Can you take this off or not?" Patton asked, tears welling in his eyes.

"I-uh-no." Logan stuttered. "We don't know how."

"Fine." Patton stood and looked at Roman. His expression hard as tears began falling ever so slightly. "I need to borrow your car."

"What?" Roman asked startled.

"I need to borrow your car, drive to Thomas, and get him to pull this horrible thing off my wrist." Patton said, his voice steady.

"Patton we-"

"Please." Patton broke down into a quiet sob. "Please just let me-"

"We'll drive you. It's unsafe to drive when you're upset like this." Logan said quickly. "Roman let's go."

"Ok-okay." Roman turned and headed out of the room.

The four quickly ran out of the house and into a car. Roman started it up and began driving. Remus sat quietly in the passenger seat, looking at Patton nervously. Logan and Patton sat in the back, Patton silently crying into Logan's chest. Logan wrapped an arm around Patton's shoulders, holding him soothingly.

They pulled up to Thomas's house and frantically ran to the front door.

"Thomas! Thomas! We need you open up!" Roman knocked on the door loudly.

The door swung open and a little kid stood there worried. "What's going on?"

"Emile! Where's your dad?" Roman asked frantically.

"Coming coming! What is it?! Is someone hurt! What happened?" Thomas asked. He looked at the four.

Remus and Roman stood awkwardly on the small porch. And a little ways behind them, Logan held a crying Patton.

"Wha-" Thomas stopped himself. "Patton?"

"Thomas!!" Patton pulled away from Logan and raced to Thomas. He fell into Thomas's arms and sobbed harder.

"Oh Pat. It's okay I-I know." Thomas tried soothing him. "Come on lets all go inside."

Thomas led the four inside. Patton collapsed on the couch and looked around, drying his tears.

"Thomas, get it off of me." Patton started shakily.

"Patton, you know that's not how it works."

"I don't care. It needs to come off. I'm not breaking my last promise with Talyn. I won't do it." Patton shook his head. Once again grabbing at the bracelet and trying to pull it off.

Emile put a hand on Patton's bracelet to stop him from tanking at it.

"Patton, you know Talyn would be proud of you no matter what. They knew that it wasn't a choice you got to make. You were chosen. They would be so proud to know you're the next Pink Ranger." Thomas smiled.

"No!" Patton's tears started up yet again. "I promised! I said I would never! I told them I would never become a Ranger. It's dangerous and heartbreaking and it tore Talyn away from me! It took Joan and Talyn from me! It took them both and it almost took you!"

"Patton, I know." Thomas sighed, stepping closer to Patton who only pulled away.

Roman, Remus, and Logan stood in the kitchen eyeing the scene and trying to understand whatever was going on.

"I can't do this. I won't do this." Patton stated firmly.

"Patton, don't you remember when you were younger and all you wanted to be was a Ranger? You were so excited to be everything Talyn was and more."

"I was young. And stupid. And I still am. I'm not ready for this. Talyn didn't want this."

"Talyn knew that this would happen. They knew you would be Ranger. It was simply your destiny. You know that. We all knew that." Thomas sighed. "Talyn just didn't want you to feel pressured. Talyn knew the risks and didn't want you to go through the pain."

"If it weren't for the morphers, Talyn, and Joan, and Valerie, and Terrence, and Dominic would all still be here! You wouldn't have been the only Ranger for the past ten years! You wouldn't be doing this on your own." Patton cried.

"Pat-"

"Thomas, please just get it off of me." Patton held out his wrist to Thomas. "Please. I can't do this, please."

"Patton. I-I-"

"Pat, please." Emile took Patton's jaw in his hand. "I know it hurts, but think about what you're doing. You know you can't take it off. Once it's on you, you can't just take the morpher off. It's there and there's nothing you can do. So, what you need to do, is live up to that amazing loving person the morpher chose. The morpher chose you because you bring heart and care and compassion to the team. You're made for this role and I know you can do it. Though you may not feel it now, it's still there."

"Emile-"

"When we were so much younger do you remember pretending to be Rangers together. You were always the brave Pink Ranger, swooping in your save me from the Dragon Witch. You just wanted to help me. You've always wanted to be a Ranger and you've always wanted to help people. Please don't give up on that. You know for a fact Talyn only said that to try and keep you safe. No matter what you've promised them, or Joan, or Megan, you want to do this." Emile stopped him. "You don't have to be afraid. You've got a team by your side."

They sat in silence. Patton's tears had dried on his face and he desperately tried to talk but found no sound coming out. His chest heaved and ached. Patton could only squeeze Emile's hand in his and sniffle.

"I'm sorry." Patton squeaked. "I'm so sorry."

"No, don't be sorry. Pat of course you'd feel this way. No one expects you to immediately want to be a Ranger. Especially after what happened with Talyn. No one blames you for feeling this way." Thomas assured him.

"Thank you, I-I know. I know it's okay. It just still doesn't feel that way. It doesn't feel-feel-feel-"

"I'm sure it doesn't. But it's okay." Emile whispered.

Patton collapsed into Emile, just crying into the smaller boy. "It hurts so bad."

Emile nodded and ran a soothing hand through Patton's hair. As Patton continued trying to control his sobbing he felt more arms wrap around him. He shifted to see Roman, Remus, and Logan holding him gently, too gently. It was like they though one squeeze would break Patton in half.

"You're going to be the best Pink Ranger to ever fight." Roman told him.

"Thank you I-I'm okay." Patton smiled sweetly at the boys hugging him.

They pulled away, but stayed close.

"I'm going to be okay." Patton said a little shakily but calm.

I'm ready. Patton wrote late that night in his diary. I'm going to be okay.


	4. Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dee may seem to have it all together, may appear to have poeple help him at the flick of a hand, but his life hasn't exactly been the shit for a long time, and it's really about to turn side-ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter Features: Deceit(goes by Dee) centric storyline, Dee has virtiligo but covers it up with makeup-very dramatic and will be explained later
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: hostage, mentions of alcohol, brief mention of smoking, sympathetic Deceit, sympathetic Remus

Dee doesn't hate his life. At least when it came to school. Dee was the 'second in command' to the most popular girl in their school and took that position in stride. If there was a rumor going around, Dee was likely the one who started it. He knew whether any rumor was true or false and knew exactly how to manipulate the situation to make himself come off perfect.

Dee had to admit, his high school life waas certainly better than he could imagine. Every flick of his hand is met with a faithful servant. Every teacher turning a blind eye when he skipped. An invitation to any party anyone was having.

All of this, and the only thing Dee has to do is be Kayley Harlem's 'gay best friend'.

Through Kayley, he met Roman and Remus. Roman, another gay boy for Kayley to sit by in class for clout during school hours, and Remus, the one who helped her skip and get alcohol or something to smoke.

Roman was certainly not close to Dee. The two had flirted a lot when they first met, but Roman stopped that after a week for reasons he wouldn't explain. Dee didn't quite mind. Nothing would ever happen between the two and he knew it.

However, it was the other twin that Dee found himself oddly close to. He never knew what Remus meant to him, but he did mean something. Remus was insane and gross, but there was something spontaneously sweet about him that Dee liked. He wished he could describe or understand it, but that lead him down a path he had never been before. A path that Dee felt was best left undiscovered

Dee rarely found himself regretting his situation. It had been like this since he joined the school in Sophomore year, and he'd grown used to his place.

Like usual, Dee, Kayley, and Remus were sitting in the back bathroom of McDonald's across the street from their school. It was probably fourth hour, but Dee didn't know exactly. Kayley was playing on her phone and texting some guy while Remus lazily stretched out on the sink counter. He munched on fries and slightly bobbed his head to whatever music he listened to. As Dee was about to reach up and grab a fry from Remus, the door to the bathroom opened.

"Seth!" Kayley cheered. She stood up and gave Seth a look. "Ready to go?"

"Yup." Seth nodded, reaching a hand around her waist and leading her out the door.

"Don't wait around Dee. I'll see ya later m'kay." Kayley waved.

Dee nodded though he knew she wasn't paying attention to his reply. The bathroom was left in almost silence. The ventilation whirred as Dee laid back once again, the faint sounds of Remus's music drifting to his ears.

"You don't have to stay you know." Remus stirred.

"What?" Dee asked, sitting up to look at Remus.

"You don't have to stay here. I know you only really hang around me because of Kayley." Remus shrugged, staring up at the ceiling. "And she did tell you to not wait around."

"Remus wh-"

"And it's not like you want to hang around me anyway. I mean, you did say so yourself. Just leave like I know you want to."

"Remus I swear-you're still on that?!" Dee shot back angrily.

"Dee. I'm literally repeating everything you told me." Remus stated calmly, though something about his voice put Dee on edge.

"I was drunk!"

"Barely. You've got a high tolerance and had maybe a few sips. If I'm being generous." Remus finally peered over at him.

Dee hated that. That look in Remus's eyes. He just hated Remus's eyes in general. His irises were so dark and shined like he could burst into tears at any moment. Why, of he and Roman, did Remus have to be the one with with tearful eyes? You could never tell what Remus was thinking when he looked at you. Dee heard people say eyes are the gateway to the soul. If that was true then Remus's soul must be the most vague, unreadable thing in existence.

"Remus, I didn't mean it li-"

"You said it literally last week." Remus quirked an eyebrow.

"Look. I'm-"

The ground shook. Faint screaming from outside the McDonalds as well as the monstrous cries of those aliens attacking their town replaced the growing tension in the bathroom. Both boys groaned.

"Again? What is this stupid prince's deal?!" Remus pulled his earbuds out annoyed.

"Prince?" Dee asked.

"Nothing. Just get somewhere safe." Remus brushed it off.

"Where are you going? Shouldn't we stick together?" Dee said, his voice a little more desperate than he would have preferred to admit.

"Dee, just keep yourself safe okay? I gotta go." Remus said hurriedly. He rushed out of the bathroom, leaving a very baffled Dee to watch the door as it swung.

"You're hiding something Remus." Dee mumbled curtly.

He walked out of the bathroom warily and searched for Remus. As he stared out the windows something flew dangerously low above the McDonald's. The employees were crouched behind the counter and began whisper-shouting for him to join them.

"That guy in a green sweatshirt. Where'd he go?" Dee asked.

"Hopped the counter, through the kitchen, and out the employee exit to the back alley." The oldest worker recalled.

"Thanks." Dee followed Remus's movements out the door.

As he walked out the door and into the alley Dee could see flashes of light. He stared as the Green, Pink, and Blue Rangers stood in the alley.

"Anyone see Thomas?" The Pink Ranger asked.

The voice coming from the Ranger was familiar to Dee, but muffled and it began annoying him that he couldn't tell who's voice that was.

"He's covering the breech on Copper's street." The Blue Ranger stated. "He'll be over here soon."

"Where the hell is my brother?" The Green Ranger stamped his foot.

"What did I say about swearing?" The Pink Ranger crossed his arms and sighed.

"Seriously? You're holding me to that?" The Green Ranger turned to Pink.

"What are you three doing just standing around?!?!" The Red Ranger called as he ran into the alley.

"Where were you?" The Blue Ranger asked in an annoyed tone.

"At the meeting spot! We said behind thrift shop!"

"We said McDonald's." Blue pointed out.

"What!?! When did we ever-"

"Okay kiddos! Aliens first! Arguing later!" Pink shouted to get their attention.

"Right!" The Red Ranger turned on his heels and began running. Quickly followed by the other three.

Dee watched them go, following quietly until the end of the alley. The Blue Ranger summoned the seperated ends of his lance and knelt down. Suddenly the Pink Ranger, from several yards ahead, turned and began sprinting toward the Blue Ranger. He jumped on the ends of the lance and the Blue Ranger boosted the Pink one into the air. As the Pink Ranger went up the Blue Ranger connected his lance and held it out for the Pink Ranger to balance on. Blue used all of his force to boost Pink into the air. He landed on the roof of the nearest shop and summoned a bow to shoot the minions. The Blue Ranger ran up to the Red Ranger, who dipped his broad sword so Blue could catapult himself off the blade and spear several minions at once. The Red Ranger and Green Ranger stood back to back, hacking away at whatever minions came close.

Dee watched in awe as they fought. Sure, they were sloppy, but it was evident they were working as a team. At least as close to a team as they could get.

"Ooo, who're you?" An unnerving voice behind him asked.

Dee turned quickly. The person stood a little taller than him. The only thing Dee could really see about their features, were six glowing purple eyes.

"I-I-" Dee stumbled out of the alley not knowing how to react.

"Doesn't really matter who you are, I guess. Those Rangers will risk anything just to save some random person. Humans are sympathetic like that." The person stepped into the light of the sun with Dee, revealing the crown and dark hair that shadowed their face. "Well, sypathetic may not be the right word. I think it's more stupiditiy than sympathy."

Suddenly the person had a hold of Dee's shirt and a cloud of darkness surrounded him.

When Dee opened his eyes, he was standing in a wide open area. It appeared as though he was in the middle of a construction zone, but no workers, or really anyone, was around.

"Where-"

"It's some new building." The person said from a few feet away.

"Oh." He stared at the dark person, something about them was unnatural. Wrong. Like they weren't really what Dee was seeing. "Why are you doing this?" Dee asked not really knowing where he was taking the conversation.

"I don't have a choice. It's just what I gotta do." They sighed.

"Why?"

"Cause it's the only way to get this stupid planet under control."

"Why do you want us under your control?" Dee asked.

"Why do you ask so many questions." The person said in a fake, shrill, voice.

"Jeez you're fun." Dee sarcastically commented.

"Oh shut up. The Rangers will be here any second." The person looked around. "I just want this over."

It was quiet. Dee felt beads of sweat fall down his face. He didn't know what to do. He felt like he could run, but if he tried this, well, whatever this person was, could definitely hurt him. Dee's mind couldn't focus. There was so much. It was too quiet. Like all destruction had seased. Leaving Dee to his thoughts. The sun was too bright and the person holding him captive was too calm.

"Are you sure this is it?" A voice asked. It was distant.

"Well, the minions were certainly trying to run this way, and seemed focused on this building." Someone replied. "I would know for sure if you had listened to my plan-"

"I get it!! I get it!!" Another voice jutted in.

"How do we even know it's gonna be him?" The voices were getting louder. Footsteps closer. Dee's breathing became more erratic. "I mean who knows what other-"

The voices stopped. The Rangers stepped into Dee's view and were all caught off-guard.

"I-I-uh," The Pink Ranger tried to speak.

"Dee?" The Green Ranger croaked.

"Is that your name?" The villain asked.

"Um-"

"I'll take that as a yes." The villain shrugged. "How's it going Rangers?"

"What are you doing?" The Red one took a step forward.

"Me? Oh, you know, a little trade." The villain chuckled. "Hand over the morphers or the human comes with me."

"What?" The Green Ranger said darkly, taking a step with Red.

"You heard me. Give up the morphers." The villain pulled Dee closer and summond a little ball of flame, pointing it toward Dee.

"That's not how the morphers work." The Blue Ranger stated.

"You can't just take them off. They choose the wearer. They choose the Ranger." The Pink Ranger began.

"Don't even try to trick me! Give them up or he's not coming back!" The villain put the flame closer to Dee's face.

"Listen to them! They know what they're talking about! You can't just hand them over!" The Green Ranger strained, tensing when the fire got closer to Dee.

"No! No, no, no!! You're just trying to trick me and I won't fall for it!!"

"We aren't lying! I mean it! You can't give them up!" The Pink Ranger stepped closer.

"Don't make this difficult! I will take him! I'll take more than him if I have to! Just hand them over!!" The flame was getting too close. Dee felt the fire's heat and yelped.

"Dee! Oh god, please just stop! Don't hurt him please!" The Green Ranger walked forward.

"No!! Don't come any closer!!"

The heat was too much. Dee yelped again and wimpered.

"Okay, okay, okay I won't! Just let him go!" The Green Ranger begged.

"You can't take them off, we told you. You lost!" The Red Ranger stated.

"You're lying!" The villain sneered.

"We're not! I promise we're not!" The Green Ranger almost sobbed. "I-I-I'll prove it!"

"How?" The villain pulled the fire away and loosened his grip on Dee.

"Yeah how?" The Pink Ranger turned to Green.

The Green Ranger pulled his hands up in front of his chest.

"Remus no!" The Blue Rnager tried, but it was too late.

"Green Ranger, deactivate."

Dee closed his eyes hastily, until opening them slowly to see Remus standing there in place of the Green Ranger. His face was a mix of attempted confidence and fear. His eyes dangerously close to spilling tears.

"Remus?" Dee squeaked.

"I can prove it." Remus stated, his voice barely shaking. "Try for yourself! You can't take it off."

The villain's grip on Dee loosened further and he let the fire fizzle out quickly, moving his hand to attempt to yank at the green band on Remus's wrist. It didn't work. The band only tightened around him.

"No." The villain's voice wavered as he whispered. "No, no, no, god no. Please."

"We told you. They don't come off." Remus said, trying his hardest to keep his voice steady.

"No, no, no." Dee felt as the prince's hand went slack and fell.

He looked over at the Rangers and saw the pink one gesturing for him to run behind them. Dee moved to do so, but stopped quick, turning to see if the villain was paying attention to him. When he looked at the villain's face, his stomach dropped.

"Why, why." The villain croaked, voice barely above a whisper. "I-I-I can't keep-I can't-this doesn't-"

"There's no use in trying." Remus said calmly.

"I-It's, um, you don't have to keep doing this." Dee began, he didn't know at all when he was saying. "You can stop."

"He's right." The Pink Ranger began. "Virgilius, you can stop this. You don't have to do this. You-"

"You're being forced to do this aren't you?" Dee began. He saw as the villain, Virgilius apparently, softened his hold on Remus. Eyes faltering.

"I-I-"

"It's okay." Dee tried to muster a smile. "You don't have to do this. You can stop."

"No, I-"

Dee felt it before he knew anything was happening. A strong hold on his wrist, metal collapsing around him. He gasped and pulled his wrist up to his eye level in slight shock. There the yellow morpher was, collapsed around him.

The room was silent.

"Gosh." The Pink Ranger borough his hands to where his mouth would be.

"Dee you're-" Remus started.

"I knew it! You Rangers pretend you care! You act! You lie! You lie and lie and lead me to think!!" Virgilius stepped away hastily. "All humans do is trick! And lie!"

"No! No this isn't a trick!" The Red Ranger said quickly.

"I promise this isn't-I'm not-there's-" Dee, for once in his life, didn't have the words. There was just so much going on. He was a Ranger now. A Power Ranger. The Yellow Power Ranger.

"No I'm not falling for it! I'm not falling for your human schemes!!!" The villain summoned fire in his hands and began his attack.

"Dee!" Remus tackled him to the ground, the prince's fire ball barely missing the two.

Dee stared up at Remus shakily still processing the events. He saw the bright pink, blue, and red flashes of light as the respective Rangers summoned their weapons and began battling.

"Thanks." Dee said, just loud enough for Remus to hear.

"No problem." Remus grunted, lifting himself off of Dee and sitting on his knees next to him. "Where's emo?"

"Not sure." The Red Ranger answered.

Dee sat up to find himself alone with the other Rangers. No villain in sight.

"He just left?" Dee asked.

"He tends to do that." The Blue Ranger shrugged.

The Pink Ranger walked over to Dee and crouched down, extending a hand. "Pink Ranger deactivate."

Dee stares back in Patton's kind eyes as the Ranger armor faded to light.

"Welcome to the team." He said with a slight giggle.

Dee gave Patton the smile he had reserved for him alone and took the extended hand.


	5. Downright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think it's time for a team meeting, don't you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter Features: Remus centric storyline-ish, lots of exposition, think of it as a filler episode I guess
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: brief angst, mentions of death, mentions of blood, mentions of Mountian Dew, talks about Reddie fanfiction, sympathetic Deceit and Remus

Remus was sick of going through the whole 'this-is-who-we're-fighting-and-a-boring-explanation' speech. The first time was bad enough. He was so unbelievably bored. How could anyone sit there and listen to Thomas talk on and on like that. The second time was a little entertaining because Roman liked to add his little spin and Thomas didn't appreciate it as much as Roman thought he did. The third time was no fun at all. Patton, though he knew about the fight a decade ago that had ended with only one Ranger surviving, he still didn't exactly know who this new 'Prince Virgilius' was.

Now, it was the fourth time around and Remus felt he could recite it to Dee himself without any help. He didn't want to do that because he was still pissed at Dee-leave it to Remus to hold grudges-but he still could explain it by memory nonetheless.

"The Dragon Witch." Thomas began.

The Rangers plus Thomas were sat in Thomas's basement that doubled as a little hideout for the Rangers. It was decorated like an old 90's dream club house. Patton and Roman sat in paw print patterned bean bags, sharing a chocolate bar. Logan stood at his conspiracy wall-he didn't call it that, but Remus knew all too well it was a conspiracy wall. And Dee was sat down on the pink inflatable couch.

"She began her attack on Earth hundreds of years ago. This you know from your average history class. Back then Power Rangers were all over the globe. Essentially one Ranger per continent. Though Antarctica didn't quite need to be covered."

"No one messes with penguins!" Patton chimed in goofily. This got a laugh out of Roman and a small smile from Thomas.

"Then the Power Rangers disappeared for a century. No explanation, no help for the public, nothing." Thomas tried to continue.

"The Red Century." Logan said plainly from where he stood.

"Yes. That's when the Red Century began. The Red Century however, abruptly ended when the Dragon Witch pulled her armies and stopped her attack all together." Thomas stated. "That was until the early 1900s when she began to specifically attack America. Then centralizing Florida, then our town. We didn't quite know why, until the Rangers of the 30s began to fight back."

"Since then, the Rangers have been chosen from generation to generation." Thomas moved over to stand by Logan's timeline. "A little over 20 years ago, my friends and I became the Rangers you knew as a child."

"Valerie, Red Ranger. Dominic, Green Ranger. Terrence, Yellow Ranger. Joan, Blue Ranger. Talyn, Pink Ranger. And Thomas, the Black Ranger." Logan pointed to pictures of each of the Rangers as he says their name.

"Until ten years ago, when, uhm-" Thomas's voice wavered.Remus saw him look to Patton who gave a small smile and turned to Dee, getting out of his bean bag and walking to the fridge by Logan's conspiracy board.

"Do you remember ten years ago when the Rangers disappeared?" Patton asked. "Everyone thought the Red Century was starting again."

"Of course. It was chaos," Dee sat back on the couch. "until the Black Ranger, or Thomas I guess, started fighting again."

"I was in recovery for a few months after we battled the Dragon Witch herself. The others didn't uh. . . di-didn't make it. I was the only Ranger until, well Roman and Remus." Thomas gestured to the twins.

Dee was avoiding Remus's eye. It was so deliberate Remus just wanted to shout 'You're really bad at this! It's so pathetic you're making me feel sorry for you. Just say something! Coward.'

"And now I'm-" Dee took a breath. "The Yellow Ranger."

"Whoop!!" Patton raised a Mountain Dew from the fridge in the air in a cheer.

"Mountain Dew?" Logan asked. "Should you be drinking that, when was the last time the drinks in there were replenished?"

"I'm sorry, but Mountain Dew from forever ago? Does there happen to be any red Mountain Dew in there?"

"Is this another The Prom reference?" Logan asked in an annoyed tone.

"No, Be More Chill, but good for you, guessing a Broadway show." Roman smiled.

"Well you don't talk about much other than Broadway so one can only assume." Logan mumbled and turned back to the board.

"What else in the world is worth talking about?!" Roman exclaimed. "Other than Lizzo and/or Zendaya."

"Cheers to that!" Patton lightly threw a Red Mountain Dew to Roman who missed the catch but snatched it off the floor with a bit of a deflated look.

"And this, Prince, that we're fighting he-"

"Prince Virgilius. He started leading the Dragon Witch's armies four years ago. I'm honestly not sure where he came from or what his true powers are. The teleportation has been something he's always had, but the fire, is new as of a few months ago." Thomas informed him.

"So far, no idea as to where he came from-"

"Where he'll go!" Roman cut in.

"Where he's come from Cotton Eye Joe." Patton finished.

"I feel this should be a more serious discussion." Logan said plainly to Thomas.

"Lo-Lo, we're sitting on inflatable furniture in a decked out, early 90s, fever dream." Remus pointed out. "You're not gonna get serious while down here. Throw me a soda Pat?"

"Please never call me that." Logan rolled his eyes.

Patton chuckled and threw a Mountain Dew to Remus. His ability to catch was no better than Roman's, so the soda hit him in the chest as his arms fumbled to catch it.

"Sorry Remus." Patton recoiled and apologized.

"How are you guys Power Rangers? You can't catch a thing! At least Patton can throw." Dee scoffed.

"Dee, please, we're gay, we can't catch for anything." Roman sighed.

"Bet! I can catch hands!" Remus opened his soda and took a long sip.

"Alright bet!" Roman stood.

"Well this isn't a very hero-like conversation." Emile giggled from the stairs.

"What are you doing down here? You shouldn't be listening to this." Thomas crosses his arms.

"Yeah well, you're all loud." Emile stated cheerfully. "Besides, I don't see why I can't listen. I already know everything."

"It's true he does." Patton shrugged. "However, Emile, you shouldn't really have to worry about any of this."

"You knew all of this when you were younger than me." Emile argued.

"Yeah, um, how's that?" Dee asked.

Patton walked back to his bean bag and sat down. "Talyn was my adoptive parent. My birth mother in South Korea was unable to keep me. So, a while after I was born, Talyn adopted me. I grew up around the Rangers."

"Patton dreamed of being a Ranger. For years that was all you would hear about." Thomas chuckled fondly.

"Six years after Talyn got Patton, my dad here, got me." Emile sat next to Patton on the bean bag.

"Then, after the Rangers fought the Dragon Witch, and Talyn didn't make it," Patton's voice broke a little, but he recovered quickly. "I was put in foster care."

"Luckily I was able to make a deal with the FBI about Patton's foster family." Thomas said.

"FBI?"

"What?" Thomas turned back around to see everyone in the room looking at him confused. "Did you all really think we were some group of hero's that reported to no one? It's a bit like the Avengers, they reported to shield who had to follow special guidelines set by the government. The Rangers are in contact with the government to protect our identities and to keep track of us."

It was silent. Remus looked around, Roman and Patton seemed to be having a silent conversation while Logan looked like the human version of a computer trying to calculate some weird math thing. Dee just looked a little overwhelmed by all of what was happening. But Remus wouldn't really know what that expression looks like on Dee. He definitely wasn't reading Dee like a picture book.

"If we're the avengers then Logan is Tony Stark and Patton is Steve." Emile said softly, attempting to relieve a little bit of the tension.

"Oh my god!" Roman looked to Emile. "And you're their son Peter Parker."

"Yes!" Emile pointed to Roman in agreement.

"What?" Logan squeaked.

"I love it!" Patton said suddenly, eyes bright. He moved to Emile and wrapped him in a hug.

"Logan look at our beautiful son!"

Remus burst into laughter. "Logan looks like a malfunctioning computer! Oh my god!!" Logan's ears turned bright pink and he turned away. However, this only resulted in Remus laughing more. He laughed so hard he fell to the floor, almost in tears. Roman was clearly having a hard time holding in his laughter while Dee shamelessly snorted at Logan's expression.

"Now don't be mean." Patton scolded jokingly.

"I will never understand you kids." Thomas shook his head.

"You're a guidance counselor." Emile pointed out.

"Doesn't mean I'm any good." Thomas shrugged turning back to Logan's board.

The laughter died down, but Remus for the life of him couldn't wipe his smile off his face. It felt good to smile with everyone.

. . . 

Remus still didn't talk to Dee that much and he stopped interacting with Kayley all together because of it. The only tome he really felt sorry about it was when he overheard Kayley lashing out at Dee for messing up so she couldn't get her stuff any more. Remus didn't really feel much remorse for him though. It was Dee's fault after all, right? He figured Dee would say something sooner or later, so it was best to just get on with his life. Besides, he already was forced to see Dee more than he would have liked, what with their weekly Power Ranger meetings.

It had been a few weeks since Dee joined the team, and Remus had to admit, they worked together well enough. In that time Logan had decided there must be a pattern to Virgilius's attacks. It would seem random to anyone just casually observing, but Logan was convinced there was something behind it. The most likely theory was posed by Patton, he thought it had something to do with the moon rotation, but that still didn't sit well with Logan.

Surprising to everyone including himself, Remus discovered a pattern.

"The last attack on the upper east side of the town," Logan pointed to that side of a map of the town. "was September 14th."

"Mhm." Patton nodded along.

"Then he once again attacked the upper east side on September 30th." Logan stated. "However, the most recent attack was on the west side of town, two weeks ago on the 3rd."

Remus sighed. He pulled out his phone and stopped paying attention. He never contributed to these strategy talks anyway. This was for the others really. They were the ones who knew stuff. Remus just punched stuff.

As Dee joined the conversation, proposing the location of attacks could be the real pattern, Remus looked up to see Logan making a list. One column was dated of attacks and the other was where in the town the attacks took place. Remus looked back down at his phone, popping in a blue tooth ear bud and listening to a few of the more recent chapters of a fan fiction he was following.

Then, it hit him.

"I know the pattern!!!" Remus jumped up. "I know it! I know what his pattern is!!"

"Wh-what?" Dee asked.

"Remus, explain." Logan looked at his skeptical.

"Preferable less yelling next time kiddo."

"Yeah Pat, sure." Remus gave Patton a nod and walked up to the three at Logan's conspiracy board. "Here, there's this really popular fan fiction-"

Dee and Roman snorted before Patton and Remus shot them both dirty looks.

"Anyway! There's this really popular fanfic called Downright. It's about reddie, ya know Richie and Eddie from It." Remus went on. "I don't really read it, I listen to the audio version on YouTube."

"Get to the point please." Dee rolled his eyes.

Remus scoffed but did so anyway. "Look, here, since August, every attack has been a day after a new chapter is posted. I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

Remus handed Logan his phone who went to reaffirm Remus's hypotheses. Logan mumbled each chapter title posted since August and the date they were posted. Then matched it with an attack.

"Here, look, the author had been trying for a few months to post regularly, but took a break here." Remus pointed on the phone. "Then that Prince dude stopped."

"Around the time I became a Ranger." Patton noted, writing on the board.

"Then she posts another chapter and boom! A day after he's back at it!" Remus pointed to the place Logan had marked on his map of the town that corresponded to the attack Remus was talking about.

"So what does this mean, the Prince is some kind of fanboy?" Roman asked from his seat.

"Well, from this information we can assume that not only does our general study humans but takes interest in human things, to the point where he's, um, reading fanfiction about it." Logan began. "We can start a profile of Virgilius. If we have an idea of who he is, then predicting what he'll do next will only be easier."

"Ooo, this is like an episode of Sherlock!" Patton beamed.

"You watch Sherlock?" Logan questioned.

"I'm getting into it." Patton shrugged. "I can relate to Watson a lot."

"He's the bi one!" Roman declared. "Right? Sherlock's gay and Watson's bi?"

"Well, I've never posed that question. However! Not the topic of conversation we should be focusing on." Logan turned to Remus, handing him back the phone. "What can you tell us about people who typically read this, uh, fanfiction?"

"Well, to be honest, most of them are repressed gays. Definitely has a Tumblr blog, that's likely where he found the fic. Um, a horror fan but not classic horror, modern horror, and is probably pretty progressive. Because he's reading this fic it means he wasn't happy with the ending of It Chapter 2." Remus started.

"Meaning he had to somehow see the movie!" Patton continued jotting stuff down.

"Really, there's not much. It's not like other fandoms. He's definitely not in Thomas's generation because they aren't exactly fans of Reddie." Remus looked away. "He could either be a younger millennial or older gen-z. But other than that I can't say much else. People in the It fandom don't have any stereotypes like other fandoms. I mean some of them are insane 12 year olds."

"We can rule that one out." Logan dismissed. "However, Remus, what you said is more helpful than you think. We've got a rough profile of what he's like. We can use that to predict his moves. Granted, it's not the best information, but something is better than nothing."

"Plus, we've got Remus." Roman got up and walked over with the others. "You can tell us when the author uploads a chapter and we'll be prepared for the next day."

"Yeah, but she's almost done with the work. Like three chapters left at the most." Remus said, abruptly killing the mood.

It was quiet for a beat too long.

"Well, in the time we have, we've just gotta try our best to learn as much as we can about him!" Patton smiled through it.

"Besides, since we know he bases his attacks off of when something he likes is released, we can find another thing he might be interested in and use that as a predictor." Logan looked to his board, now adorning a list of attributes the Rangers know about Virgilius.

"Hey kids! I've got pizza bagels." Thomas yelled from the kitchen.

Patton and Roman cheered and raced up the stairs. Logan chuckled and followed the two with a fond expression. Remus watched them go. He couldn't help but feel a smile on his face. It felt kinda nice to help them. Granted they still were losers-well, not Patton-but Remus had to admit, having more than Dee to care about him felt good.

"Remus?"

Speak of the devil.

Remus peered at Dee from the side of his eye before moving to the stairs.

"Remus, hang on okay! This is so childish." Dee scoffed.

"What's childish? Me? You can add that to your list." Remus sneered and Dee flinched from his comment.

"No-I. . ." Dee looked away, Remus wondered if he was deciding whether he was annoyed or sorry. "I'm sorry I said those things."

Sorry it is.

"I mean it, I am. I should have know how hurt they would make you feel." Dee admitted. "I've never really apologized to anyone so I'm not too good at this-"

"But you're trying." Remus cut him off. "Look, Patton and I have been talking. He's trying to help me get into the college I like."

"That one for design and fashion?" Dee asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." Remus smiles a little when he said that. "You remembered."

"Mhm." Dee nodded.

"Well, yeah. I don't exactly have the chance of getting in if I keep doing," Remus gestured to himself. "this. So, I'm gonna forgive you. You don't deserve it frankly, cause I know you've said even worse stuff about me in the past, I just never said anything. But, Patton is certain that if I act all nice and stuff like this, then I'll have an easier time getting in. So, it's fine. I forgive you and everything."

"Oh. Well, okay. So, we're cool?" Dee looked a little dumbfounded. Remus wished he could take a picture.

"Yeah sure." Remus shrugged.

If you asked Remus why he lied to Dee he wouldn't be able to give you an answer. He could say that he didn't lie, but he had. There was no talk with Patton about being nice. The two did talk about college because Patton has an insufferable habit of helping people, but Patton had never mentioned Remus forgiving Dee. So, why would he say that? Simply put, Remus doesn't know. He doesn't know why he forgave Dee for saying those things. He's sure he shouldn't have, that Dee didn't truly care and forgiving him would be a mistake.

Then he saw Dee's face. He had just looked so disappointed. Though, not in Remus. Remus really didn't know why that struck him so hard, but he forgave the boy and moved on. Letting it go. Why he lied and said Patton told him too? Well, a boy must keep up his reputation.


	6. Lockdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So what happens when you go to american public schools and you're a dumbass? This.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter Features: Dee(Deceit) centric storyline, lots of demus, I swear I know how to write other couples!
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing courtesy of Remus, a lockdown drill, breif mention of sex/masturbation, kinda crappy writing, sympathetic Deceit and Remus

Monday 10:00 am, morning announcements

"Hi, I'm Maggie Ray."

"And I'm Kiera Maine."

"Happy Monday morning."

Dee wasn't paying attention. The announcements were cringy. Ttwo girls went through the lunch menu and weather before moving on to some skit that was played to cheer people up on Mondays.

Dee absently looked around. Not knowing what he was looking for. His eyes scanned the room, landing on Remus. He had been doing that a lot recently. Looking at Remus became a habit and he couldn't really say why.

Remus was sketching something in the back of his notebook. Dee was never allowed to see his drawings. As far as he knew no one had seen them. Dee also speculated he was the only one who even knew they existed. Perhaps Patton knew, but it wasn't likely.

Dee glanced back up at the announcements, and seeing as they were still doing some skit, he turned back to Remus. Today he wore an old thrift store black Blondie tank top that was definitely cut for women and a green sweatshirt under it. Dee rarely saw him without that sweatshirt. In fact he rarely saw either Roman or Remus without their respective sweatshirts. Remus's was torn in a lot of places, whether that was the design or his own doing, Dee didn't know.

Dee stopped spacing-out in time to see Remus lift his head and turn to Dee, catching him staring. Remus looked Dee in the eye and smiled.

Those damned eyes. Dee sneered to himself.

Remus snickered a little. He blew Dee a dramatic kiss and sent him a wink. A gesture that got Dee to flip him off in return, only causing Remus to snicker more.

He had such an obnoxious laugh too.

Dee turned back to the front of the class in time to hear "On Thursday we will be having a lockdown drill, so be prepared and remember-"

Dee stopped listening again. He'd heard the same instructions for 12 years. He didn't need to hear them again.

Tuesday 10:00 am, morning announcements

Remus wasn't here this morning. He always had a dentist, doctor, or orthodontist appointment on Tuesdays so that was probably where he was, but he hadn't responded to Dee's text. Dee figured maybe his phone was taken, his parents tended to do that. Remus never told Dee what he did to warrant his phone being taken, but he always had an idea.

"Hi, I'm Maggie Ray."

"And I'm Kiera Maine."

"Happy Tuesday morning."

Dee looked around. A habit he was realizing he should probably break. He looked over to Remus's empty seat, even though he knew Remus wouldn't be there.

"On Thursday we will be having a lockdown drill r-"

Dee let the announcements interrupt his thoughts. Where those thoughts even going he couldn't say. Somethings were best left undiscovered.

Dee felt his phone buzz. Remus finally! Dee thought. He looked at his phone screen sneakily. Not Remus. Patton actually.

Patton Valentine:  
Remus said he's not coming  
to school today. Roman  
doesn't know what's  
going on but he said it  
can't be good.

Me:  
thanks pat

Patton Valentine:  
Np

Why didn't he just text me. Don't we know each other better than Remus and Patton knew each other. At least, Dee had always assumed that of the Rangers he knew Remus better than anyone. Maybe I really don't. I guess Remus did tell Patton about that fashion college thing. And did talk to Patton about our fight. Maybe we really aren't as close.

Dee could feel a bubble of anger starting to build. Well, perhaps it wasn't anger, it could be something else. Dee just didn't want to know what.

Wednesday 10:00 am, morning announcements

"Go on to your new seats." Dee's teacher told them dismissively.

The announcements would start soon and they were getting new seats in the class. The single seats were rearranged slightly and Dee would now have only one table partner to sit next to in the back of the classroom. That partner just so happened to be Remus. Oh, the universe thinks it's funny.

Dee placed his stuff down and waited. Again Remus wasn't at school. Dee stopped feeling angry about that a while ago. He liked to think he stopped feeling at all a while ago, but there was certainly a small part of him deep down that was irrationally worried about Remus.

"Hi, I'm Maggie Ray."

"And I'm Kiera Maine."

"Happy Wednesday morning."

The door swung open. The class and Dee turned to see who had burst in during the worst possible time.

Remus. Dee smiled a little but it turned to a scowl quickly. This bitch-

"Dee!" Remus whispered as he took his seat.

"What?" Dee sneered back.

"Jeez, someone's feisty. What? Not able to jag-off the other-"

"Finish that sentence I dare you." Dee stopped him and glared, his voice sharp.

"Okay, wow, I won't finish." Remus put his arms up in surrender. "Ha, that's what she said."

"Remus." Dee groaned.

"Sorry sorry, women's right and all." Remus put his feet up on the desk and sighed into the chair. "That's what he said."

"Ugh." Dee turned back to the announcements.

"Don't forget, tomorrow we have a lockdown drill-"

"What happened yesterday?" Dee decided to ask Remus.

"Nothing." Remus's mischevious expression didn't waver but his voice said otherwise.

"Remus, did, uh, did something happen yesterday that you're not telling me about?" Dee asked again.

"It's nothing Dee. You'll hear about it anyway so-"

"Well it should probably come from you then right?"

The bell rang. Remus stood and didn't give any kind of goodbye, just left. Dee felt, well hurt. He knew him and Remus weren't as close as typical friends could be, but other than Kayley, Dee didn't really feel like he had someone he was as close to. Now Remus was avoiding him. It was getting on Dee's nerves how Remus had stopped talking about things to him. He really thought they were getting somewhere. Dee had apologized for saying those things behind Remus's back, why can't that just be enough. Remus forgave it!

Dee tried to brush it off and head to his locker quickly to grab his math textbook.

"Dee!" Kayley huffed as she fell gracefully next to him, leaning on the lockers.

"Something happen hun?" Dee asked, her eyes showing some form of spite, though not toward him.

"Yeah something happened Dee! Remus is being a little bitch." Kayley sighed. "He's not dealing anymore. Said he won't no matter how much I pay!"

"Really?" Dee asked, much more interested now.

"Yeah! What an ass right?! He won't even get me those shitty vape pens from the convenience store a block down. What is his problem?!" Kayley ran a hand through her hair. "I told him off, obviously. Told him to stop being a bitch and give me a reason. I don't wanna have to find someone knew this year! I'm graduating."

"Mhm, what'd he say?"

"Oh my god, that ass, he said 'I'm trying to get my life together, and you should too. Patton told me this isn't good and I'm not doing it anymore'. Then he said something about my highlights, which was totally uncalled for, and left." Kayley groaned.

"Wow." Dee said, shocked. Seriously, what happened yesterday?!?!

"I know. Guess I'm gonna have to go to that underclassmen. Ugh, he's probably gonna wanna sleep with me or something." Kayley dismissed. "Whatever, he'll do whatever I say."

"I can't believe he pulled that shit on you." Dee sighed, hating how fake his voice sounded.

"I can't either. I'm gonna make this school year hell for him. See if he comes crawling back. That bitch is gonna get hurt if he crosses me again I swear." Kayley sneered.

Thursday 10:00 am, morning announcements

"Hi, I'm Maggie-"

"Look, don't worry about it alright! Nothing happened, I'm just sick of being one of Kayley's minions." Remus rolled his eyes, trying to make Dee drop it. "I'm sick of her Heather Chandler, Regina George bullshit. I'm not gonna be someone she thinks she can push around and will just give her what she wants."

"Yeah, but you told her that you were trying to be better-"

"Why do you care?!" Remus snapped back. "Maybe I'm not the stupid background character in Kayley's damned soap opera. Or you're soap opera for that matter!"

"I never said you were stupid! Or a background character!" Dee snapped back. "I just-this just isn't like you!"

"That's the point. This isn't like me. I'm trying to not be so me. I'm trying to actually get myself together and do something other than drink and drugs and whatever." Remus rolled his eyes. "Patton and Logan are actually trying to help me get on with my life. I have dreams outside of this hell hole of a town and honestly, I'd actually like to see them come true. I know that sounds so much like my brother, but I'm starting to see why his life is so much better than mine."

The two were silent. Dee saw it on his face. Remus hadn't meant to say that last bit, but he did. And it was how he felt.

"Remus-" Dee started. "Roman's life, isn't that much better than yours." He said carefully.

"I know you're good at lying Dee, but not about this." Remus said angrily. "Roman's got it better than me. He's gonna get into some into some damn good college and be famous and rich and whatever. And if I keep dealing I'm never getting into Parsons and never getting to at least try to do something worthwhile. I wanna do what I love Dee. And outside of having a lot of sex-"

Dee sighed at Remus's joke.

"that means stopping, whatever this is."

Dee stilled at that. What do you mean by that? 'Whatever this is' the hell do you mean by that!?!

"When you say 'whatever this is', you mean you're gonna stop talking to me." Dee snarled.

"Wait what?" Remus turned to Dee suddenly, his eyes big. God why can't I read your eyes? Everyone else, is so predicatable, why aren't you? "Dee, I-I'm not leaving you or anything. I-I like you. I like you."

Remus seemed to be debating something in his mind. "Yeah, yeah I like you Dee, and I wouldn't stop talking to you. I'm just trying to figure some things out right now. I'm still me and I'm still gonna be me. Like I'm gonna steal shit and offend racists and fail tests and piss of my parents by being gay-"

"What?"

"Ya know? Like, drink stolen hard lemonade while I punch nazis and get a C in civics. Just another Tuesday."

"I feel like we should go back to your parents not liking that you're gay."

"Stop interrupting me. Look, I'm not gonna suddenly stop talking to you Dee. Your 'friend' Kayley is a bitch who gets on my nerves and screws with me for no reason. I'm not gonna lie, I hate her. But just because I'm getting her out of my life, doesn't mean you're out. I wouldn't do that." Remus looked back at the board and then back to Dee. Scooting just a little closer to him. "I like you too much to cut you out like that."

"Pfff." Dee snorted, waving off Remus's comment.

"I'm serious, I like you Dee. I-I really do." Remus said again.

"Yeah yeah, I like you too 'Mus. You're probably the only friend I've had who's stuck by me like this." Dee elbowed Remus a little.

Remus chuckled at this and turned to the board, awaiting the bell. Dee looked at his face. Remus seemed more relaxed, but something was off. He posture would have told Dee that Remus was disappointed, but without reading his eyes there was no way to tell. What would he even be disappointed about? We're good now.

Thursday 1:56 pm, passing time

Dee was walking away from his table and about to leave the library when Remus came up to him. The two left the library and started walking the hall to their last class.

"Heya Dee-o, so about earlier, I-"

'Attention all students this is a prerecorded message, we are now in lockdown procedure, I repeat, we are in lockdown procedure, find the nearest classroom and enter, lock the doors, turn off the lights, and above all, stay silent'

"Seriously! Right now!" Remus groaned.

"Why didn't they tell us about this?" Dee groaned as well. "They should seriously tell us when they're gonna do these stupid lock down drills."

"Agreed." Remus nodded.

The flow of the crowd had caught up to the two and was pushing them down the hallway to a classroom. Dee reached over and grabbed Remus's arm, pulling him into a classroom. After they were in a few other underclassmen joined them in the room and shut the door and locked it. The room fell somewhat quiet and Dee and Remus looked around. Realized they were the only seniors in the room and that there was no teacher.

"Hey, what were you gonna ask me-"

"Are any of you a teacher?" Remus asked the room.

It went silent. Dee looked over at his friend in confusion. "Remus what-"

"What are you all, freshmen?" Remus asked.

The room murmured in agreement and nodded.

"Ohh this is too good of an idea to waste." Remus practically giggled.

"Remus what are you doing?"

Remus raced over to the teacher's desk and found it already signed in to someone's account. He pulled up Spotify and started plugging in the speakers.

"Remus you're seriously not playing music-"

"Watch me." Remus gave Dee an impish smirk before flipping the dial on the speakers to full volume and went over to the computer. "Any requests?!"

The freshmen got the same look of mischief as Remus and started shouting out song requests. Dee laughed. Remus as always.

"I think I heard 'Mr. Brightside' anyone else?" Remus called out. There was a row of cheers and some confusion from what Dee could only assume were uncultured freshmen.

Remus clicked play and the song's instrumental intro began. Remus walked over to Dee with a smirk and joined the others in their singing. Remus grabbed Dee's wrist and pulled the boy over to the crowd, joining the freshmen as they danced and sang. The song ended and some kid went and changed it to 'Hollaback Girl'.

The whole room's energy went feral as they practically screamed the song lyrics. Dee found himself unable to stop laughing. He looked around at the freshmen, most were dancing and singing, a few seemed to be scheming around the room, two were going through cabinets and messing stuff up, and the two girls next to him and Remus's were full on making out. Remus's stupid giggling brought Dee back to the man in front of him. Remus looked at Dee and smiled wide.

"Dance you pretentious ass!" Remus told him above the singing and screaming.

"What?!" Dee looked at Remus baffled.

"Oh my god." Remus snorted, grabbing Dee's hands and beginning to dance with him.

Dee just laughed and started dancing-what he could only assume-like an idiot. Remus twirled him around and continued to dance happily with him. Dee felt his world continue to spin as he went around and around. Dee didn't know what to do other than laugh. When Remus stopped spinning him, he realized they were at the door and Remus was about to open it.

"If anyone asks our names are Roman Reeves and Logan Montgomery!!!" Remus yelled to the crowd.

The freshmen cheered. Remus opened the door and pushed Dee out quickly joining the crowd.

"Holy hell that just happened!" Dee felt himself snickering.

"Next time let's bring some fire-crackers!" Remus said excitedly.

Dee laughed joyfully. Remus joined him for a bit but just turned away with a grin and left for his own class. Dee walked into Econ before quickly stepping out again, feeling himself moving without really realizing it.

"See you later!?" He found himself calling after Remus.

"Maybe!" Remus said back. "But don't wait up!"

Dee felt some form of childish glee fill his chest, before going back into the room and having to supress the smile.

Friday 8:00 am, five minutes from first period

Dee knew he could get away with seeing Remus before his first period. With Kayley considering Remus her mortal enemy, Dee wasn't able to see at all in public anymore. However, Kayley was no where near Remus's first period and the two didn't think anyone would truly care to mention seeing the two together if they did. However, this didn't mean that they didn't do a little sneaking around.

So there the two were, a small storage room connecting Mr. LeWinsky's and Mrs. Johnston's science rooms. It was dimly lit and filled with rarely used or half-broken science equipment that could truly only be found in a public school. Remus was filling Dee in on the certainty that Virgilius would be attacking later that night. The second to last chapter of that fanfiction was posted last night. However, neither were really too invested in that conversation, instead they simply, as Dee would prefer to call it, vibed.

'Will Roman Reeves and Madeline Montgomery please come down to the office'

The bored voice of Janet the office worker announced over P.A. Remus and Dee lost it. Their laughter filled the room and just as they were calming down from their high Roman's angry voice from outside the closed door yelled, "REMUS!!!".

Then the laughter only continued.

Friday 3:50 pm, Roman and Remus arrived home from school

"Ro." Remus got his twin's attention.

'What's up?" Roman replied, placing down his bag at the foot of their stairs and reaching for an orange on the counter. 

"I told Dee I liked him on Thursday." Remus said bluntly.

"Wh-what!" Roman spun around quickly, looking to his twin. "You actually told him!"

"Yeah." Remus sighed.

"AND!?!" Roman practically squealed.

"I-uh-I don't think he got it." Remus said, hating the disappointment that filled his voice.

"I'm sorry what?"

"I said, 'I like you Dee', and he just didn't really say anything about it. Then he said something about how we're friends and just kinda, ignored it. Maybe he thought I was saying it as a friend thing." Remus shrugged.

"Are you sure you told him you like him?"

"Yes Roman, I am!" Remus snapped.

"Okay, okay!" Roman put his hands up in defense. "Look, maybe you should try again. I mean, did you explain what you meant by that?"

"No, I just kinda figured he knew what I was saying but didn't want to reject me so he kinda ignored it. You know, like a signal to not make a move or anything." Remus shrugged again.

"I don't know." Roman pondered. "Dee is usually pretty blunt. I think he'd be direct about rejection no matter who it is. I'm sure he just didn't know what you were saying."

"Great that-"

BOOM

"Huh, he's later than usual." Roman looked to the window. Both twins understanding their next move.

Run.


	7. Blank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh dang this is getting serious!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter Features: Patton centric storyline, YouTuber!Patton, discussions of a fake fanfiction about Reddie
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, falling from a building, fighting, allusions to anxiety, a transphobic comment, fainting/passing out, use of the word slut(1 time), sympathetic Deceit and Remus

"Okay, this is our last shot to figure something out about Virgilius before we can't predict when he's gonna show up again!" Thomas yelled.

"Correct. We have to make this count!" Logan agreed.

Patton and the others nodded and continued running to the sight of the breach. It was a nice Wednesday afternoon and Virgilius had apparently decided to let them finish the school day before attacking. As October drawled on the nights became just a little chillier with the ocean breeze swirling through town. Patton was naturally a faster runner than the others so Logan had assigned him to racing ahead, getting to a high vantage point, and helping him assess the situation.

Patton rounded a street corner and arrived at the little crossroads in the city where many restaurants had outdoor seating and a lot of public activity. Now, the usually quiant area, had a giant rip in space and time the was pouring out monsters like an open wound. Patton summoned his bow, spotted a perfect building roof just next to him, and shot and arrow. As the arrow flew to the roof, a pink lasso type of string extended from it, and once the arrow landed, Patton was pulled into the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, when the heck did you get grappling hook arrows?!" Remus shouted.

"Training on Sunday. I found out I could summon them!" Patton replied.

"If you had been there you would have seen it." Roman remarked.

Patton reached the roof and climbed over the ledge, running across so he faced the square. Monsters were piling out of the breach and pedestrians were all around, cowering and screaming. Patton knocked an arrow back and began firing at the breach.

"Yeah well," Remus paused. "I was busy."

"What could you have possibly been doing?!" Logan asked.

"More like who could you have been doing." Roman mumbled.

"Heard that." Patton chastized.

"Are you slut shaming me right now?" Remus asked incredulously.

"I dunno are you being a s-"

"Shut it you two!" Dee barked.

"What do you see?" Logan asked.

"Pedestrians are everywhere, it doesn't seem like the minions are engaging with them, but if we don't hurry I think they might." Patton explained, firing another arrow.

"What's the call?" Roman asked.

The rest of the Rangers entered the square and looked to Logan expectantly.

"Are they looking to leave the square or are they staying here?" Logan asked.

"Staying here."

"Alright. Here's the plan. Green and Yellow, you two handle the minions around the outside, any of the ones that look like they're ready to attack civilians or ones that might leave the square. Black and Red, you two cover the breach. I'm going to try and direct civilians out of the square and behind the Twisters. Pink, I want you to cover my flank so the others don't have to worry." Logan explained. "Got it?"

Everyone gave an affirmative response.

"Okay." Logan nodded back.

The Rangers broke off. Remus and Dee ran in opposite directions, handling any straggling monsters that strayed from the rest. Roman and Thomas ran forward, slashing through the monsters that hoarded around the breach. Logan raced to the restaurant side of the sqaure, and began helping pedestrians up and getting them running to the alley that let out behind Twisters. 

Megan's working today. Patton remembered, his stomach dropping a little. She's in that Twisters. Patton didn't want to think about her possibly getting hurt and continued to try and focus on helping Logan safely transport the pedestrians, but he found it more difficult than usual.

"Hey, so, did you ever come up with a new name for these things?" Remus asked.

"What?" Logan scoffed.

"I hate the word minions, you know that. Those yellow demons plague my nightmares. So, can we please think of something else!" He whined.

"I think just referring to them as monsters is fine." Logan replied.

"That's because you have no imagniation!" Roman, ever the one for dramatics, accompanied him saying this with a slash of his sword and triumphant stance.

"I have-" Logan stooped down to help a small child and their mother out of their hiding place and directed them to the twisters. "an adequate amount of imagination."

"Thinkin' about Patton without a shirt on, is not imagination." Remus sighed.

"Green!!" Thomas, Roman, and Dee scolded.

Patton tried his best to stay focused on helping protect the pedestrians, but he found it more and more difficult, however he didn't think the others' conversation had to do with it.

"Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier, I hate the word minion I say we call them something like, Witchlings!"

"Witchlings?" Thomas asked. "Explain."

"Well ya know, Dragon Witch, Witchlings. It sorta works." Remus shrugged.

"Can't we just stick with monsters?" Logan sighed.

"No!" Remus practically howled.

"Patton how does the breach look now?" Roman asked.

"Um," Patton turned. "Monsters are coming out much slower, and you've lessened the amount quite a bit, but I wouldn't take any chances."

"That was the last of the pedestrians." Logan informed. "Green and Yellow, join me and close in around the breach. Pink, I want you to take over for those two."

"On it!" Patton replied, lowering his bow and searching the sqaure.

He assumed the others were following Logan's orders and tried not to worry. Patton found a monster and pulled an arrow back, firing directly between its shoulder blades. The monster turned to ash. Patton looked around again and found another straggler heading for one of the restaurants.

"This looks like the last of them!" Thomas called.

"Okay, stay on your guard everyone, we all know what happens next." Roman said.

"Do your best to recall anything that happens, all of this interaction could be important." Logan reminded.

Patton affirmed the directions and turned his attention back to lookng for any monsters that left the pack. Then a chill went down his spine. Patton stiffined, the hair on his neck stood up and a bad feeling washed over him. Something is wrong.

"Heya Pink. We don't really get to talk much do we?" A dark voice said behind him.

Patton whipped his body around and came face-to-face with Virgilius. His crown even more daunting up close. The bad feeling only got worse. It was unnatural. Wrong. Patton wanted to get away as fast as he could. To his legs that apparently meant stepping back far too much, tripping on the side of the building, and falling.

He screamed. The wind rushed by him and he felt weightless as he fell. He wasn't thinking. All that ran through his mind was that feeling of uneasy wrong that hit him in the chest. It spread and overwhelmed his senses. His unfocused manner and inability to grasp the situation only made him more worried.

Then the wind stopped. He was in someone's arms so quickly he felt whiplash in his neck. His eyes were still unfocused but he could see and register Remus's green armor. Patton pulled in closer to Remus and grasped what he could.

"Pat are you okay?" Remus asked.

"I-" Patton paused. "yeah, I-I think I am."

Patton released Remus from his hug and allowed him to set him down. The feeling was lessened, but not completely gone. It was almost like phantom pains, not his feelings, but the affect someone else's feelings had on him.

"Aww Pink, why'd ya leave so soon. I was just getting started." Virgilius practically cackled from the roof.

Patton turned back up to him. His eyes caught the gaze of the six purple ones and he tried to read any emotion behind them. Nothing. Unable to see any of Virgilius's other features, Patton tried to focus on his posture. Relaxed, almost lazy.

Patton's attention was torn away. He felt a content and calming feeling push into him. It was frantic though, as if someone was trying desperately to make him feel good again. To take away the fear that Patton worried could consume him. When he registered the arms wrapped around him Patton turned to face Logan who was holding him tightly. Logan buried his head into Patton's shoulder. He wasn't used to Logan hugging him. Typically in times of distress one of the two would place a comforting hand on the other's forearm. This hug though, it was new and certainly welcomed. Patton realized he should proabably hug back, and did so with great enthusiasm. However, almost right away Logan let go.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice level, but on edge. "I-I suppose I was scared. I'm not entirely sure why though, even if Remus didn't catch you, with your armor being so protective you would have suffered a broken bone or two at the very worst. It's illogical for me to feel so worrisome over such a fall."

"Aww." Patton reached out to hold Logan's forearm like he had done so many times before. "Guess I'm just turning you into a big ol' hugger huh?"

"I wouldn't have phrased it like that, but I guess more physical affection is something I have been growing more accomadated to. Especially with you." Logan's voice had grown more shaky as he said this, but it only made Patton's heart melt.

"That's friendship my dear Blue." Patton chuckled.

It was quiet for a little bit too long.

"I'm sorry am I too far away, or did Kirby here just friendzone this poor guy?" Virgilius yelled from his vantage point.

"What?" Patton squeaked a little more than he would have preffered. He looked over to see the other Rangers in various states of frustration.

"We don't have time for this." Logan scowled. "Red!"

"Right!" Roman let his hand fall from where he had it on his forehead. He looked up to Virglius. "Prince Virgilius! Your reign of terror ends here! You've done nothing but wreak havok. The terrorizing of these people stops today!"

"Uh-huh, okay, and what makes you think that? Hm? You haven't stopped me in the past, and nothing about today makes your odds any better. What could possibly make you think today is the day?" Virgilus yelled back.

"Well-"

"What did you think about Richie and Eddie leaving?!?" Remus called up to him.

"What are you doing?" Roman turned on his brother.

"Trust me." Remus said.

"What?! No, why would I trust-"

"Roman, trust him." Dee cut in. "We talked about this we know what we're doing."

"I'm sorry what?" Virgilius asked.

"The last chapter was posted yesterday. I'm sure you read it." Dee stated, Patton didn't like how calm he was.

"Richie and Eddie left Derry, together. With the others." Remus began explaining. "It came out of nowhere. What did you think of it though? Be real."

"I-I-" Virgilius pulled his hands to his chest and stepped back. "I don't know what you're-"

"Yes you do." Dee stopped his rebuttal. "Downright ended and we know you read it. Just tell us what you thought."

It was quiet.

"Guys, this isn't-" Roman started.

"I liked it." Virgilius said, albiet hesitantly. "I know a lot of people in the comments weren't too pleased because it seemed like leaving Derry diminished the whole point of their recovery together. If they were just going to leave anyway, why spend so long trying to regain the love for the things that they had before."

It was silent again.

"But I thought it made sense." Virgilius continued. "Richie and Eddie spent a lot of time trying to reconnect with their town, but it only really made them want to go back to the past. When things were easier. Not go forward with the new lives they wanted to start together. Being together made it different. It made them realize how moving on and away from Derry wasn't running from their past, they had already accepted the past for what it was. Instead, leaving Derry together was a way of starting a new. Not burying the past, but no longer letting it affect them."

The air was still. Patton had no idea what to do other than think, I need to read this fanfiction apparently.

"So you figured me out!" Virgilius stirred them from their dazes. "What was the point of that? You got me, good for you, what are you doing just rubbing it in?!"

"No!" Dee stopped him. "I swear we're not. We-uh-we were curious. I mean, I never read fanfiction, but the ending to that one stuck with me and I've been trying to figure out why. It just seemed like a pointless build up to some kind of half-assed epiphany. Like the writer had tossed the last six chapters out the window. I was so confused about why she went that way."

"And I thought about the same thing as you!" Remus cut in. "It made sense to me when they left, it just felt more like they were leaving becuase they didn't know how to be together in a town where they didn't feel loved. Derry didn't love them and they loved each other too much to let the town get in the way. Leaving was their best chance at being with each other, being where they wanted to be."

"They just wanted to be happy together." Virgilius seemed to agree. "It didn't make sense to stay somewhere that was training them to stay apart. Being together was what made them happy. All they really wanted was each other and the rest of the Losers' Club."

Another beat of silence.

"Virgilius!" Dee got his attention. "I know we're supposed to be fighting, but I don't want to. Whatever you've been told about us, about how we're liars and cheats, it isn't true. Uh. . . to an extent. We're not perfect, but I'm sure whatever is going on up there, we can help you with."

"He's right!" Patton decided to step in. "We aren't always the best, but we try to be. I don't know what's going on with you, but I can tell that something isn't right. He means it when he says we can help. We help each other, and we help ourselves. We'll be here to help you too."

It was still again. Patton thought he could feel the exhaustion coming off of Virgilius. The weariness grew as they talked to him. It was ridiculous though to think that, how could he sense the prince's emotions from that far away. Patton couldn't see his face, so why did he feel so tired of the fighting. It wasn't his tire though, it wasn't like Logan's exhaustion, or Roman's, or any of the other Rangers'. It was foreign, and strong.

Virgilius screamed.

It was close to hellish. All of the Rangers went to cover their ears and block it out. Patton kept his eyes trained on the prince. He tried desperately to see what was happening, only to find a thick, black, inky aura beginning to surround him. It pulsed and expanded, circling Virgilius's body. Virgilius began to rise into the air, his arms and legs limp, his face still shrouded in the shadows of his crown. His eyes were no longer a glowing purple. Virgilius's body began floating to the ground, slowly and steadily, moving with the aura.

His feet his the ground and the aura exploded. It covered the entire square, encompassing everything in a shroud of blackness. Patton could still see, but it strained his eyes as he tried to find Logan's arm to hold. The screaming stopped suddenly.

"You insufferable brats!!!"

Patton looked to the source of the voice and realized he was no longer standing. None of the Rangers were. The only one standing now was Virgilius.

"Do you know how long it has taken to perfect this thing?!! Perfect my army?!!" It was a woman's voice Patton realized. The voice was domineering and overbearing with a lower undertone that followed, like it was being echoed by a demon.

Finally Patton got the strength to look up at Virgilius. He sucked in a breath of shock as he saw the hood had falled, the crown now being the only thing on his head. He could see Virgilius's face! Patton began attempting to burn it into his memory. His jaw was round, not very defined, his cheeks were a little puffy, but not as much as his own. His cheekbones were very defined however, almost unnaturally so. The first pair of eyes were small, they sat about eye brow level, then the main set of larger eyes, and finally the smallest set right below the middle ones. The outline of his eyes was like his cheekbones, unnaturally sharp. His hair fell to the left of his crown, down to the center of his middle set of eyes.

Virgilius's eyes aren't glowing purple, Patton remembered. He stared up into Virgilius's eyes. His irises were a bright angellic white and his pupils a darker than night black. It was just as unnerving as before.

"Oh I thought I had seen the last of you but you're just so persistant aren't you! It's stupidity is what it is!! It's not human nature, it's not being good people, it's not trying to help those who can't help themselves!! It's stupidity!!!" The voice screamed. "You're all so stubborn and stupid!!!"

"Ngh-" Patton heard Thomas from just a few feet away. he was shuffling around, likely trying to get to his knees. "You're going to lose! And this boy that you're using as a little pawn isn't going to be yours much longer. He's not weak and you're not in control."

"Oh . . . you're not new." The voice replied, almost bored. "How dissappointing. You won't last very long you know. And these kids you've got as the new Rangers, they aren't going to last either. You may be stubborn enough to stay alive, but you're stupid enough to keep fighting."

"And you're weak." Dee said with a strength Patton wished he could muster for himself. He begged and pleaded for his body to do more than look on.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me you sick bitch!" He yelled. "You're using him! Forcing him to fight us because you can't do it on your own. He's going to leave the twisted hold you have on him one of these days and there's nothing you can do about it. You won't even get down here yourself to fight us!!!"

"Dee-" Patton heard Remus struggle to speak.

"Boy, do you know how many worlds I've conquered? How many civilizations I've made my own?! Believe it or not, I don't care all too much about handling this planet on my own. There are other, more important places for me to be." The voice cackled, it sounded so much like Virgilius, Patton wanted to shrink away. "I don't care about Earth enough to fight for it in person. I can leave that to my little Works-In-Progress. Like this one. This place is perfect training for things like him."

"You can't keep doing this very long." Roman grunted. "We will stop you!"

"Oh please kid. I've fought much worse than you. You're nothing! At least the last Red Ranger was something worth fighting. She was certainly an opponent for my experiments. You though, you don't even come close." She snarled in return.

"Then why are we still alive?! Why are we still here, fighting you!" Logan huffed, clearly straining.

"Now Blue, your Ranger has always been something. Never the same really. I have to say, having a level headed one is a change of pace, but being the smartest in a room means nothing if you can't command respect! You hold yourself like even you can't stand the way you are. You act like you're on a higher level of thinking than others, but really you're just as much of an indiscisive mess as everyone else on this pathetic planet! You don't understand your feelings, you pretend you care only to know deep down you would do anything to be known as the smartest in the room, and to top it all off you're not even a real boy!!"

"Shut up!!!" Patton let out the words, not even realizing they were his own, but it was how he felt.

"Now here's our fighter. Pink. Unexpected sure, but then again, the hell you put yourself through in your own mind is much worse than I could ever really do. I'll give you props for that." Her voice was drowning Patton's ears. He was so angry, he just wanted her to shut up. "In fact, I'll give all of you a little credit. I've certainly thought about going the tear-them-apart-from-the-inside route, but you all are so self-destructive, you do it on your own!"

She was going on, but her words were muddled in Patton's head. He didn't know what she was saying and didn't want to. Then an idea came to mind. Patton tried his hardest, pulling all of his strength and will, he just needed to shut her up. He needed to do something other than sit there. He felt the determination bubbling inside of him, he felt the fear but he channeled, tried to force that fear to make him fight, not run. Patton summoned his bow. It felt so heavy in his hand. Everything was heavy, pulling him down, prying to keep him down. He lifted his torso, fighting the aching it gave him. Patton pulled his arms up, summoning an arrow, and knocking it back.

"Sorry Virgilius, but you gotta go for now." He said, it felt like he was yelling but only a whisper came out.

Then he fired, straight for the crown. In the blink of Patton's eyes the crown had been knocked to the ground. The black aura was gone, Virgilius collapsed to the cement, his eyes purple once again. Patton watched as the world tilted to the side, dimming. His head hit something hard, but he barely registered it.

It was black.

Virgilius scrambling, grabbing for the crown.

Black.

Virgilius again, until the boy disappeared.

Then fuzzy black again. Not like the ink. This blackness was welcoming, not overwhelming.

Patton felt a hand on his arm. He opened his eyes again and saw Logan, his mouth was moving but there was no sound other than the ringing. When did the ringing start? Patton asked himself. Logan looked so terrified. Patton didn't like that expression. Suddenly Thomas came into view, he was also speaking, but it was nothing Patton could hear.

Then finally, the fuzzy black. Patton realized he didn't like calling it black. His world wasn't black. That black, inky terror wasn't in his vision. It was more blank. That's the word, blank. Blankness. A blank world.

Patton let a smile fall on his face. He was okay with everything being blank. Just for a bit.


	8. Renette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers meet a new, mysterious ally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric, trans!Logan
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: talks of past violence, brief mention of PTSD, description of scraped hands, mention of past ‘possession’, talks of manipulation, some cursing, sympathetic Deceit and Remus

Logan still thought they should have brought Patton to a medical proffessional. Thomas had practice with typical medical proceedures from his own time as a Ranger, but Patton's collapse should have been treated more carefully. However, he also knew that taking him to see a real doctor could potentially reveal his and their identities. Logan complied with Thomas's instructions and allowed Patton to be taken back to Thomas's home. The team was frantic. Remus and Dee weren't speaking to anyone but each other and it was starting to get on Logan's and Roman's nerves. Yes, they may be good friends, or friends-with-benefits, or whatever they were, but they had to confide in the others. The risk they had taken of talking to Virgilius like that was too great to not at least ask Thomas about. Then when their plan-well it didn't fail, to be honest Logan didn't know what had happened-but the two's plan didn't have the outcome they wanted and now they were shutting everyone else out.

Finally they reached Thomas's house. Emile discreetly hurried them in through the back. Remus set Patton down on the couch carefully and the rest of the Rangers, plus Emile sat around the table. They all deactivted thier Ranger armor and looked around. Emile came over to Logan and sat down next to him, pulling up a first aid kit and silently asking for Logan's cooperation. Logan hadn't even realized how badly his hands hurt. He looked at his palms to see them scrapped and raw, bleeding slightly in a few areas. When had that happened? He asked himself.

Logan allowed Emile to begin the disinfecting. It didn't hurt as badly as he had anticipated.

"I'm sorry." Thomas croaked out. "There's been quite a few attacks since Roman and Remus became Rangers, but I didn't expect she'd-she'd do . . . that so soon."

"Thomas it's okay." Roman gave a weak smile. "Really, you couldn't have known."

"Yeah, but I could have given you a warning."

"Even with such a warning, we likely wouldn't have known the extent of her ability, and I'm assuming that was barely scratching the surface of what she can do." Logan winced a little as Emile pressed the cotton harder into his palm.

"What even was that?" Dee asked. Oh so he hasn't totally forgotten us? Logan rolled his eyes to himself.

"Joan and Talyn called it possession-"

"Any ghost can do that in less than one lesson." Logan heard Roman whisper. That must be some Broadway reference I have yet to learn, he thought. 

"The Dragon witch, sometimes she would possess the Generals that attacked us. When we came too close to actually stopping them. She'd take over their body and that black cloud would leave us almost defenseless." Thomas continued.

"Did she ever do, ya know, that?" Roman grunted, likely referencing the Dragon Witch's verbal maltreatment towards them.

"Only a couple times. She never really took possession of her generals, and when she did she was never that mad. She acted impressed, almost proud. It was so unnerving. Like she wanted her generals to fail against us. We didn't know why." Thomas sagged back into his chair. "She's never really said any of those things before." 

"So we should expect her to do it again?" Roman asked incredulously.

"If you keep trying to make Virgilius turn to our side, I'd say so." Thomas sighed.

Logan, Roman, and Thomas turned to Reus and Dee, they held somewhat guilty expressions, but weren't backing down.

"What the hell you two?" Roman finally broke the silence. "Why didn't you tell us you were going to do that?"

"You didn't seem too keen on the idea when I asked you the first time, Roman!" Remus crossed his arms and huffed.

"What?" Logan looked to Roman. "When did you talk to Roman-"

"Saturday. Dee read up to the second to last chapter at that point and we came up with the plan." Reus stated.

"Remus talked to Roman about it later that day but apparently he said Virgilius wasn't gonna be convinced and we were just wasting time." Dee growled. "Figured if that's what Roman thought you two would be even less inclined to do it."

"But you did it anyway! And look at what happened!" Roman gestured to Patton on the couch.

"How could we have known that was gonna happen!" Dee refuted. "We just figured if we talked to him long enough he might see our side. We could help him!"

"And if he didn't then we'd know not to hold back." Remus lowered himself further in his chair.

"Not hold back?!" Roman stood. "What so when we fight him you're just holding back!"

"Roman you don't get it. That's not him." Dee's voice simmered.

"You don't know him!" Roman harshly put it.

"Patton and the two of us are the only ones that have gotten this close to him. He just gives off this feeling it's-"

"Unnatural." Patton's soft voice said from the couch. "Pink Ranger deactivate."

The Rangers and Emile rushed over to him frantically. Logan felt the weight on his chest that he hadn't realized was there, get lifted off of him. Patton smiled a little, but his eyes showed a protectiveness Logan was familiar with. 

"Patton what-" Roman started.

"Dee and Remus are right. Virgilius, he's-well-I don't know what he is, but being so close to him, it just felt wrong. Unnatural. It doesn't feel right. He's just like what Dee said; a pawn in her game. She's using him and if he hasn't seen it already then he's going to real soon." Patton explained.

"Patton-"

"I think he needs our help." Patton looked to Logan, desperately trying to get him to understand.

"I think he's been using Downright as a message. I mean why else would he attack after each chapter is posted, he wanted us to read it for a reason." Dee said quiety. "Then the last chapter was posted and it was all about Richie and Eddie leaving Derry, it was such a strange choice, but after talking to Dee we realized there were two ways you could look at it. We didn't really know for sure if he wanted to leave the Dragon Witch or not, but asking him what he thought was the perfect way to really figure it out."

"If he thought what the writer did made snese, then we could be even more sure that he's coming to our side." Remus finished. "Then his explination, it just made everything click! He wants to leave just like Richie and Eddie left Derry! I mean come on it just makes so much sense."

"We were getting through to him! Thomas said she only possessed the Generals when they were about to lose, we didn't even start fighting!" Dee went on. "We were making sense to him and it scared her."

"Before she possessed him, he seemed so tired." Patton said. "His emotions were just so strong I could feel it! He was so tired of the fighting! I'm not making this up. I know what I felt."

"How?" Roman asked. "Pat you're so sure this was how he felt, but you don't know him."

"I could feel what he was feeling!" Patton tried.

"Patton has always been better at sensing people's emotions, and knowing how to help them in times of distress." Logan nodded

"Megan calls it my sixth sense. It's not a super power but I'm almost never wrong. I know what I felt, it-it came from him." Patton stated firmly.

"If you're so sure that's how he feels, then what do we do about it?" Thomas asked. "Knowing the Dragon Witch, she's just going to make him hate us more now that she knows you two tried to help him. He's not going to be as easy to sway."

It was quiet. Logan looked to Patton and sat next to him, allowing Patton to intertwine his pinky with Logan's. Patton moved to fully hold his hand, but Logan felt the sting of his scrapes and pulled away. Patton looked at Logan curiously, to which he showed Patton his palms. 

"I hate her." Patton whispered for just Logan to hear. "You know I don't say that lightly, but it's how I feel. She shouldn't have said those things to you. I didn't like her before, but when she sa-said that, gosh it made me snap."

"Patton-"

There was a knock at the door, interrupting Logan. Everyone was still.

"I'll get it." Emile said calmly.

"Wait Emile!" Patton whisper-yelled after him.

Emile only waved off Patton's concern and strode to the door. 

"Renette!" He exclaimed giddily, jumping into the person's arms.

"Hey Sugar." The person responded.

Emile was set down and he dragged the person into the room for everyone to see. A tall, built woman follwed him. Her dark skin and even darker hair complimented the rose gold color of her suit, and her boxbraids were up in a bun. Her overall look was proffessional and Logan admired it greatly.

"Renette." Thomas sighed, relieved.

"Sorry you had to wait so long Thomas. Every time I planned on arriving something got in the way. Luckily, I was here for this one, so less work on my part had to be done. I came over here as quickly as I could." She stated.

Logan then recognized her, she was a pedestrian that he had helped in the square.

"Sorry, but, who are you?" Dee asked.

"Right, oh this is long overdue." She adressed the rest of the room. "My name is Renette Rademeyer-"

"That's awesome." Remus remarked.

"Thanks I picked it myself." Renette chuckled. "And I'm going to be working with you all on behalf of the federal government."

"You work with the FBI?" Roman asked.

"With your part of the FBI." She clarified. "I'll be handling a lot of things for you boys like foreign affairs, and other aid you can provide, I'm a go between, and a form of mentor. Thomas has been doing good, but you boys need to get some real training in."

"Foreign affairs?" Logan asked.

"You've been doing a great job fighting Virgilius and whatnot, but that's not the only thing you can help with. Other places around the world need you."

"Like the Avengers. They didn't just defeat aliens, they stopped terrorists and stuff." Patton said.

"We have to fight terrorists?" Roman asked.

"Oh, no no. Fighting terrorists is far too complicated to send you boys in." Renette stopped him. "Mainly outreach. Helping people in other countries get food, supplies, help during natural disasters, that sort of thing."

They nodded.

"And of course there are other things that I have to speak with you all about. This may take a while, so please get comfy." Renette waited.

Roman the sat next to Logan, then Dee, then Remus. Thomas sat in a chair, and Emile on the ground, looking up to Renette happily.

"To start, there's the matter of none of you except Thomas have summoned your Zords yet, so we'll be working on that." She began. "And because of this, we aren't going to be asking for any outreach, but know that once you can consistantly summon them, your participation in world helping efforts will be madatory."

Logan and the others felt a twinge of guilt at that. The zords were a vital part of the Power Rangers and to deafeat the Dragon Witch they would definitely, need them. Thomas said it had taken a long time for any of the last Power Rangers to summon them, but that didn't make it any easier.

"Then there's the matter of publicity. Currently as I'd hope you know, mattel is coming out with a new line of Power Rangers action figures and other companies plan to make products in your images. Then there's movies, music, and other forms of entertainment about you. Since, technically the Power Rangers have been copyrighted, you will all be compensated. However, you will not be actually receiving any compensation until after you've become a legal adult and college fees are paid."

"I've been wondering about college." Logan piped up. "I don't plan to stay in Florida for college and if the Dragon Witch is still attacking-"

"I guess I should get into that now." Renette sighed. "While there's no demand for you all to go to college here, I would hope by the time you leave you'll be able to summon your Zords and arrive to the sight of the attack quickly. If not, other arrangements will have to be made. Whichever college you attend shouldn't be a problem."

"So um, what was that about money?" Remus asked.

"And movies?" Roman piped up.

"Yeah that too, but mostly the money."

"Well, the compensation you all will be receiving for items being made about you, will go into a fund for each of you to attend a college that you are accepted into. When the time comes to go to college, that money will be paying for all of it, and if it doesn't cover wherever you would like to go the government will handle the rest." Renette explained. "Also any explaination to your parents will be provided, so don't worry about that. Any questions so far?

"No? Good. Next we have to talk about any invites you as Rangers may receive. Movie screenings, parades, celebrity parties, lunches, news station interviews, possibly even public addresses." Renette went on. "You'll obviosly have to go as a Ranger so your identity isn't revealed. You will be briefed later about how to speak to the public, but really it'll depend on the situation."

"Are we gonna be invited to see Broadway shows?" Roman asked expectantly.

"I would assume so. Thomas, I believe you and Emile saw Hamilton in Chicago upon invitation, correct?"

"And Dear Evan Hansen in New York." Emile nodded.

"So yeah, I would expect that." Renette shrugged and smiled at Roman's happier expression. "As for celebrity parties, well, you're not encouraged to go to all of them obviously. If you are able to attend a party that you've been invited to, you have to run it by me first and get my approval. There will of course be consequences if these rules aren't followed. When it comes to the news, like with public addresses, we'll brief you on what to say beforehand."

There was a beeping from inside her suit jacket that Logan recognized as the same text tone he set for his own phone. Renette pulled her phone out and scrolled up, likely unlocking it. Logan noticed the case looked much like his own, but rather than black, hers was yellow and clear. 

"My son needs me." Renette grunted as she looked at the screen. "I-I'm sorry boys this was supposed to be a longer talk, but I've got to leave. One more thing though! On friday, I need all of you here after school. We'll be taking you to meet with your therapists."

"Therapists?" Dee asked.

"Of course, you think we expect kids to fight aliens every week and not have some kind of PTSD? You're all mandatorily meeting with seperate therapists. You can figure out schedules with them when you all meet." Renette stooped down to give Emile a hug, pulling the boy up into the air and squeezing before setting him back down. "And so you know Sugar, Remy says 'hello', but in that caffeine pumped voice he gets."

"Aww!" Emile folded his fingers. "How's he doing?"

"Better. Renae and Roland are being way over protective of him, just so you know." 

"Well, tell him I said hi and that the cappuccino machine in Mr. Richard's room doesn't work anymore." Emile replied. "It was good to see you Renette."

"Always a pleasure Sugar." She smiled and left for the door. "You too Thomas. We'll talk again soon boys!"

With that she was out the door.

"Who's Remy?" Patton asked, there was a tone to his voice that suggested he was subtly trying to say something else, but Logan didn't know what.

"Renette's son." Emile said happily.

"That was so weird." Dee remarked. "I mean she just walked in here, said she was our FBI agent and left."

"Why didn't you tell us we were gonna have to see therapists?" Roman asked Thomas.

"Well, they were still trying to find some for you all, and frankly it wasn't the right time."

"It feels like no one's talking in this team anymore." Roman pouted.

"Renette tends to just show up and leave a lot Dee, you get used to it." Emile shrugged.

Behind him Thomas mouthed 'No you dont'.

"I liked her." Logan decided to say, not quite intending for anyone to hear.

"Agreed." Patton said back, softly though so only Logan would get the response.

Logan smiled at Patton and looked back down. His own phone suddenly alerted him of a text message.

Nora Montgomery:

Mama's home.

We told her you were in bed already. Come in through the back, Lauren's ready to let you in whenever.

"Shit!" Logan stood suddenly. "I have to go!"

"What why?" Patton followed, standing as well.

"Lo, what's going on?"

"Roman, my mom's home." Logan breathed out.

"Shit." Roman agreed.


	9. Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You should probably take a page out of this book and go see a therapist. Your issues are worth talking about and if you've stuck with this story past those first five horrible chapters you might need some help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Roman centric, brief coming out story, again another ‘filler episode’, sorry
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, talks of passive aggressive homophobia and transphobia from another character, talks of therapy and seeing a therapist, mentioned first kiss, food and eating, sympathetic dark sides

Roman would always remember his first homecoming. Logan had been his closest friend since the fifth grade, but in the few months leading up to Homecoming he had been pulling away. Roman didn't know why at the time but he was determined to get their friendship back to how it used to be by asking him to homecoming. Roman remembered it all so vividly. Logan wearing a long-sleeve pale blue dress and ankle boots. Roman wearing his favorite dress shirt and pants. The two arrived at the dance, went into the full gym, and listened to one song. Then Logan ran.

Roman was so shocked he couldn't move. He just watched Logan go. Roman looked around, worried that people could see him all alone. Then he ran after Logan, scolding himself for even thinking about other people's thoughts before Logan. He was terrified. Why had Logan been so distant? What had Roman done wrong? He thought this dance would help, but now it seemed to have backfired so bad he might lose his best friend. 

When Logan returned to Roman's worried side, he was with Patton Valentine, a sweet boy who Roman had subscribed to on YouTube months back. The most surprising sight however, was that Logan and Patton, who were roughly the same size, had switched clothes. When Roman asked about the outfit swap Logan simply smiled and asked Roman to join him outside, saying a quiet goodbye to Patton. That was the night Logan had come out to Roman as trans. Then it became the night Roman came out to Logan as gay. Then the night Logan also came out as gay. Then the night they both talked about crushes without it being as awkward as before. Finally, the night they both shared a bag of microwave popcorn with Remus while they sat in the twins' treehouse and watched Star Wars Clone Wars on a portable DVD player.

Roman also knew that he would never forget his second Homecoming. Logan had decided not to go, and Roman figured he wouldn't push it. Roman actually had a boyfriend named Breyden at the time so he went with him. Roman had a good time and at first it didn't seem like that night would be all too magical. Until Breyden kissed Roman. Roman's first kiss. At a school dance, with a cute guy, and during the song 'Die Young' by Ke$ha. Roman's and Breyden's relationship lasted only a few months after that, but it wasn't a bad breakup. Roman still considered Breyden a friend and life went on.

Junior year Homecoming was the first school dance Roman didn't attend. Homecoming was mainly for the Freshmen and Sophomores, besides Roman was busy preparing for his first lead role in a musical.

Now, as a senior, Roman was spending his Homecoming night sneaking Logan into his car and driving with him and Remus to Thomas's for impromptu therapy. The three arrived at Thomas's fairly quickly, but not without Logan complaining that Roman didn't have to pick him up.

Patton was already there when they entered. He sat on the couch looking down the hallway toward's Emile and Thomas's rooms. Thomas was in the kitchen making something that was sizzling, and humming along to Wicked.

"Hey, Pat." Roman greeted him.

"Heya kiddos!" Patton smiled cheerily back.

"Whatcha makin' back there Thomathy?" Remus asked, plopping himself down practically on top of Patton and pulling out his phone.

"Quesadillas." He replied.

"Oh that sounds good." Roman said.

"Smells good too!" Remus shouted distractedly. "So is Dee here yet?"

"No, sorry." Patton shrugged.

"Hmm." Remus only looked at his phone more intently.

"What are you two?" Logan asked, taking his place next to Patton as well, though farther away that Remus was.

"What?" Remus asked, an eyebrow raised.

"You and Dee. I'm confused by the manner of your relationship." Logan began.

"We're friends. I think. Most of the time. Maybe." Remus said with a sideways glance.

"I assume you know that answer made no sense whatsoever." Logan leaned forward to look at the other boy. 

Remus huffed and put his phone down. "Look, I've told him how I feel about him and he just ignored it. He wants to stay, whatever we are, and that's fine with me." 

"That's bull crap Remus and you know it." Roman stated. 

"Well, it's not my call Roman." Remus retorted. "I'm not gonna force him. Besides, even if he wanted to date me-"

"I'm still not convinced you two aren't dating now." Logan leaned back.

"-I wouldn't go out with him. He's still friends with Kayley and I personally want to rip out each fake eye lash and injection on her stupid face." Remus growled. 

"Wow." Logan pursed his lips. 

"Oh I can't stop picturing it." Roman groaned. 

"How sure are you that he doesn't want to go out with you?" Patton asked. 

"Pretty sure. Like I said, he ignored me earlier. And more to the point he's friends with Kayley!! She disgusts me." Remus went back to his phone. "She always goes on about how much of an ally she is! She said the A in LGBTQIA was for ally. Like bitch, no!"

"Language." Thomas and Patton said at the same time. 

"I think I'm allowed to call her a bitch." Remus sneered. 

"I don't like her too much either Remus, but you still shouldn't call people that." Patton said. 

"Why don't you like her?" Roman asked. 

"Like Remus said she talks constantly about how much of an ally she is, but when Juleka came out as a lesbian, Kayley started saying just awful things and called her slurs." Patton stated. "She kept talking about how Juleka had a crush on her and how gross it was that she's gay."

"When I began my process of coming out she pretended to support me, but when it came to actually helping me with bullying or actual transitioning, she didn't do anything." Logan added. 

"What? Why didn't you say anything?" Roman asked astonished. 

"Well, it didn't matter, you enjoyed sitting at her lunch table, besides it really didn't bother me as much as it may seem." Logan dismissed. 

"Well shit." Roman's voice cracked. "I can't believe I let her just get away with this." 

"It's not your fault Roman, it's not your responsibility to police her for her actions." Logan stated.

"But I still could have noticed. Why do I even sit with her?" Roman ran a hand through his hair and knawed on his bottom lip. He knew what Logan was saying was true, but it still didn't sit well. He was supposed to be there for protect his friends when they needed and he had let this girl get away with hurting them for too long.

"Kayley only wants to sit next to you for clout you know." Remus interjeted. 

"Well I'm not sitting with her any more." Roman scoffed. 

"You can sit with me." Patton suggested. "Naomi thinks you're all very entertaining." 

"What are you guys talking about?" Dee's voice asked from the door, shutting down the conversation immediately.

"Nothing." The four replied, looking in different directions. 

"Okay then." Dee shrugged, not sounding totally convinced. He went over the the couch and sat down next Remus. 

It was quiet, though not uncomfortably so. Roman perked up when he heard a door open and close down the hallway and Emile stepped into view.

"How's this?" Emile asked, walking down the hallway. He entered the livingroom and gave a small twirl. 

"I like this one a lot more." Patton told him.

"Like what a lot more?" Logan asked.

"The outfit." Patton explained. "Emile's got a date to homecoming tonight!" 

"Who ya going with?" Remus asked.

"My girlfriend, Sara." Emile responded.

Everyone seemed to be looking at Emile in some form of confusion on Roman spoke up. 

"Oh my god for a second there I forgot straight people exist!" He laughed. The seniors all began laughing with him.

"Ha, ha." Emile crossed his arms. "And just so you know, I'm not straight. I just don't feel like labelling myself right now."

"You shouldn't be pressured to anyway." Logan stated. 

"Thank you Logan." Emile nodded. "Now! Outfit thoughts?"

"I already said I liked it. Very cute." Patton remarked. 

"I have no issues with the clothing." Logan said plainly. 

Roman examined what he was wearing. A shell-white dress shirt, small pink bow-tie, and black pants. Simple, comfortable, adorable; Emile.

"Very dashing." Roman told him. 

"Alright by my standards." Remus shrugged. 

"You have no standards." Dee pointed out. "Very nice Emile."

"Great!" Emile sighed. "Alright, have fun with therapy tonight, I'm leaving." 

A series of farewells were said to Emile as he left, and the Rangers went back to silence. Thomas finished making quesadillas and began handing them out. They munched while awaiting Renette's arrival. It didn't take too long, but Roman had watched Remus practically inhale his quesadilla and he didn't need anything more. When Renette knocked and opened the door she gestured for each of them to enter a car. Roman saw she was on the phone and looked particularaly exhausted. 

Roman hurried his friends out the door and into cars before they could protest his choices in seating. Patton and Logan next to each other in the first one. Remus and Dee in the next. Finally, Roman and Thomas in the last one. Roman figured his matchmaking for the night was over and hopped in happily. 

Renette got into the passenger seat of the last car and looked back to smile at Roman and Thomas. 

"No! Listen to me, you listen to your mother." Renette continued, signaling for the driver to start the car. 

The other cars started their engines and they pulled away. 

"You know what I mean when I say listen to your mother. You're not going out tonight. I don't care that it's friday. If your mom said no and your dad said no then what makes you think I'm gonna say yes?!" Renette continued. "Oh don't you 'Ma' me Remington! You've been sick for a whole week, and you know that those kids do-"

She listened to what the other person was saying. 

"Well I didn't know Emile was going to be there you should have led with that! Emile going is your most valid argument so far!" Renette pasued again. "No this doesn't mean you can go! One good argument from you doesn't change my mind. Besides, your mom and dad both said no, even if I wanted you to go I'm outnumbered! Nope, I'm sorry hun but I'm not risking it! You're sick and this is Florida, people don't exactly vaccinate down here. End of discussion."

Roman looked out the window trying to make it seem like he wasn't eaves dropping. 

"Yes yes, love you goodnight." Renette hung up and sighed into her chair. "Roman, if you ever want kids meet my son, he'll change that real quick."

Thomas, the driver, and Renette laughed. 

"Then again, you've met Emile so you probably think kids are just little angels." Renette added.

"Oh he's certainly not a little angel." Thomas rolled his eyes. "Emile may seem like it, but I've seen him sucker punch people a few times."

"Only cause you trained him to!" Renette laughed. 

It fell into a lull of discussion between the adults after that. Roman pulled out his phone and began texting Logan. Until Patton took over to text using Logan's phone. When the cars stopped it was at a building a ways outside of town. The sun was going down earlier and earlier as winter drew closer, and currently the sky was just fading into a deep blue. 

Roman, Thomas, and Renette stepped out of the car. The other Rangers followed quickly and together they all went inside. It was well lit and smelled of lemon scented cleaner. Renette led them past a few doors until reaching a counter with a woman sat in front of it. 

"Hey Janica, how are ya?" Renette asked. 

"I'm doing good Renette. They should all be ready for you boys." Janica replied, she handed Renette a piece of paper. "I need your signature here." She pointed to a line at the top. Renette signed and Janica took the paper back, then gave Renette another paper. "These are their assigned rooms."

"Thanks Janica." Renette smiled, taking the paper and moving to enter the door right of Janica's desk. 

"Oh, best of wishes to you and your family Renette. There's a little something that a few people in the department put together for you. We heard about Remy and wanted ot help." Janica smiled. 

"Thanks!" Renette smiled warmly, opening the door and walking in. "Okay boys, Roman you're room one. Logan room two, Dee room three, Remus room four, Patton room five, and Thomas you know where to go." 

"Thanks Renette." Thomas nodded. 

Roman looked to his right and saw a stretch of doors, marked one to fifteen. He walked all the way down with the others, each friend leaving him to head into their respective doors. Roman finally reached the door with a bronze 1 nailed to the front and inhaled. He put his hand on the doornob and twisted. He felt his stomach tighten but he didn't entirely know why.

"Roman?" A sweet voice inside asked.

"Yes." Roman nodded. He looked over to see a larger woman sitting casually in a chair. The room smelled like carmel scented candles. 

"Come on in." She told him. "It's okay, whatever you're comfortable with. Want some tea, coffee, water?" 

"Um, no, I'm good." Roman replied, taking a seat on the grey leather couch across from her. 

"Okay. My name is Doctor Faith Hop, you can call me Faith." She smiled. "Are you ready to begin?"

\---

It was Tuesday the next week when Renette showed up again. 

"Hopefully you all set up a schedule to meet with your therapists weekly?" She asked. 

The Rangers all nodded. 

"Wonderful." Renette smiled. "Now, a couple things I need to get out of the way. One, I set up a meeting with a couple friends of mine, some higher-ups in foreign governments. It's very important that you meet and discuss with them next week. Two, I need to hear any and all strategies from this moment on. Especially now. That fiasco during the last attack cannot happen again. We need results. I'd hope you all have come up with some idea as to how you can get any closer to defeating Virgilius. I want to hear everything."

"Okay, uh, Renette, what do you mean we're meeting with your friends?" Roman asked. "I don't really have a lot of time to drive somewhere like Washington D.C."

"Yeah and my moms are getting really sick of my excuses as to why I can't be home for take-out night." Dee said. "I miss eating chineese food with them."

"Don't worry about that, my friends are coming here. I cleared this with Thomas weeks in advance."

"And you're only telling us now?" Logan quirked an eyebrow.

"I could only tell you now. Anyway, you all share science class together I believe, and your teacher and our current official working at the school has agreed to give the whole grade a large group project, with which you will claim you are all working on Saturday, so you can arrive here." Renette said quickly. 

Roman looked at her incredulously. "Mrs. Ryans?"

"Yes, she works for me." Renette smiled. 

"She works for you?" Patton's eyes went wide. 

"I believe I just said that." Renette stared.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dee put his hands up. "So you're telling me, that Mrs. Ryans works for the government and has been spying on us-"

"I certainly never said she was spying on you but yes since you've become Rangers she has been keeping a closer eye on you."

". . . Right." Dee deadpanned. "So she's making our entire grade do a group project just so we have an excuse to leave the house on Saturday?"

"That is correct." Renette nodded. 

"If we're here on Saturday when are we going to work on said project?" Logan asked. 

"Well that's not my problem." Renette dismissed. 

"Hold up, hold up!" Roman started.

"No, no, no, no, no." Dee started waving his hand. 

"Wait a minute, what?!" Patton exclaimed. 

"I'm gonna fail science." Remus sank into his blow up pink chair.

"Oh you boys will figure it out." Renette tried to wave off their concerns. "What you need to focus on is the meeting with representatives from the UN who expect a level of professionalism from the only people on Earth that have acess to weapons that can defeat the Dragon Witch."

"Oh god." Roman sighed. 

"I shouldn't go." Remus shook his head. 

"You're all going. Whether you like it or not." Renette stated. "Now, I am hoping, praying, you boys have some kind of lead or strategy that can be used against Virgilius."

It went quiet.

"What happened to those letters you found on the map?" Thomas asked. 

"Oh, yeah, that turned out to be a dead end." Roman grimaced.

"What letters?" Renette asked. 

"Um, yesterday, we were looking at this map of the county." Patton got up and pointed. "Logan put pins into the places where Virgilius previously attacked. Even attacks from a year ago. Anway, we were just looking at em' and I thought these kinda make the shape of an 'H'."

"We figured he was trying to say 'help' or send a message." Dee sighed. 

"And?" Renette asked impatiently. 

"When we traced them all out it said 'Ha suckers!'." Roman said in an annoyed tone. 

"Exclimation mark included." Logan reminded. 

Remus started laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I mean I'm not really that sorry, but come on that's good. Like he got us."

Roman looked at his brother and just shook his head slowly.

"Clever child." Renette pondered. "Distracting you, throwing you off his scent."

"We're pretty sure he's like in his twenties." Roman said. "He's tall so." 

"Yeah taller than me." Remus said, almost impressed. 

"Okay, good to know." Renette nodded. "But, other than your failed attempt, do you have anything more for me?"

Roman looked around. Logan, the one who usually concocts their plans, had nothing. However, when Roman looked to the others, he saw them exchanging glances. Thomas, Remus, Dee, and Patton lookedas if they were all in silent debate with each other. Finally Thomas gave a firm nod and the four looked to Renette. 

"We may have something." Patton told her.


	10. Nora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get to know our beloved Blue Ranger a little better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric, trans!Logan
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: some swearing, mention of transphobia, talks of coming out, crying, brief mention of therapy, sympathetic Remus and Deceit(Dee), yelling

Logan's home could only be described as stressful. There was no other way he could think to explain it. He had gone home Wednesday night, snuck to the back door, texted his sister, and carefully walked up to his room when she let him in. There, he changed into pajamas quickly and went to sleep. In the morning he got up with no worry, knowing his mother was likely sleeping in to catch up from missed time on her trip, or in her office on a conference call. His sisters also took their turns helping him avoid seeing his mother and they happily left for school. 

Thursday went by without incedent as well. Logan was able to pass off him not being home as simply spending time in a more controlled enviornment to study for an upcoming test. After a few hours in the library Logan received a text saying his mother had left to see a few friends, so he walked home. Logan apporached the front steps and went to turn the door nob, but stopped. His home felt much more daunting now that his mother was home. Though he knew she wasn't currently in the vicinity, it did nothing to soothe his nerves. He found it ridiculous that he felt this way. He had a plan, a back up plan, and more, there was no real reason to feel such distress. Feelings were never something Logan prided himself in understanding. He didn't know how Patton could have such a perfect knowledge of emotions and how to help those who needed it. 

Then again, Logan thought as he firmly grabbed the door handle and pushed inside, Patton doesn't know how everyone is feeling.

Entering the house, Logan found the living room and kitchen devoid of his siblings. It was still early evening so they would likely be getting hungry at this point. He decided, since all homework was done and Thursday night he had no extracurriculars, he would go ask his sisters what they wanted him to make for dinner. As Logan walked up the stairway he observed each picture on the walls. He had seen them many times before, but it always left a sour taste in his mouth to look at the school pictures to his right. His pictures on the top, starting from first grade all the way up to the most recent one taken in senior year. Below his pictures were Lauren's photos, from first to eleventh grade, then finally Nora's from first to tenth grade. Logan never liked school pictures and his expressions seemed to reflect that.

When he reached the top floor, Logan walked to his room, the closest to the stairwell, and dropped off his bag. Then left to find his sisters. When he did they were both in Nora's room discussing Homecoming the next day. 

"So you're attending Homecoming again this year?" Logan asked Nora. His sisters looked up at him before going back to their previous activity; painting Nora's nails.

"Yeah, Pen and Luke are going so I figured, what's the harm?" Nora said. "It's just homecoming."

Logan nodded and joined his sisters on the floor. Lauren moved over slightly to give him some room and shoved her basket of assorted nail polishes towards him, indicating he pick colors. 

"I don't think that's a good idea." Logan said. "I came up here to ask what you two wanted for dinner."

"Oh, please, it won't take too long to paint your nails." Lauren chided. "Besides, we can just have one of those frozen pizzas for dinner. Haven't had em' in forever so."

"Sounds good to me." Nora confided. 

"Fine." Logan searched the box for colors that interested him. 

"Hey Lo, I know you plan on avoiding mom and stuff, but I just want to know-"

"Lauren I swear! You need to drop it." Nora cut her sister off.

"I'm sorry." Lauren looked to Logan pleadingly. "You know I'm supportive and I'll stop asking or anything as soon as you tell me to. But mom is suspicious of something. She's not dumb. I just want to know if you've thought about a good time to come out to her. Or even what we could do to help. I thought, if you really wanted to know, I could ask her what she thinks of trans people and we can go from there?"

"Lauren that's enough seriously!" Nora scolded. "Stop doing this! You have good intentions, but it's too much. Stop trying to be the one that helps him. Other people are there for him too and he can handle it on his own. You'll just make it seem like he has to come out for your sake and not his own!"

Lauren's face turned red in shame and she looked down. "I'm sorry." She said quietly. 

"Lauren," Logan reached out and placed his index and middle finger on her right knee. "it's alright. I appreciate you wanting to help and I know you really only intend for me to benefit from this."

"I do. I just want to help, but Nora's right, I'm being too pushy." Lauren said gratefully. "I'm sorry Lo. I want to help, but this is for you. This is your time. I don't know what's wrong with me." She gave a wet laugh. 

"It's natural for you to want to help by any means. It's simply who you are Laurie." Logan attempted to comfort. 

Lauren wrapped her own fingers around Logan's and smiled thankfully. It was quiet for a moment before the siblings let go and Logan went back to the nail polish. 

"Ya know," Nora started. "mom is pretty suspicious. Just think about it from her perspective. You chopped your hair, bought a bunch of flannel, own like fifteen NASA t-shirts, and as far as she knows, you've only got Nike sports bras."

Lauren and Logan looked to her, already somewhat knowing where she was headed with this query. 

"She probably thinks you're a lesbian." Nora shrugged, going back to her half painted nails. 

The three snickered. Logan handed Lauren the three nail polishes and held out his hands. She put a piece of paper towel on the ground and took the colors.

"Order?"

"Pink then black." Logan said.

"You really like that starry top-coat, huh?" Nora asked. 

"It goes with his aesthetic." Lauren gave a short shrug and Logan nodded. 

"And the pink?" Nora asked.

"No reason." Logan felt a smile grow just a little. 

"Mhm." Lauren smugly opened the bottle. "Nothing to do with Patton Valentine hmm?"

"Why would you say that?" Logan looked up at her, startled. 

"He was wearing a pink sweater today." Lauren shrugged. 

Nora and Lauren laughed at Logan's pink ears. He sighed in slight relief and gestured for Lauren to go back to her work. 

The Montgomery siblings spent that night continuing to discuss Nora's plans for Homecoming. Logan was able to also avoid seeing his mother face-to-face Friday morning and with Roman's help, Friday evening. That night Logan met his therapist, who asked him to call her Kelly, and the two discussed his thoughts on being a Ranger so far. 

When Logan arrived home later that night, he expected his mother and sister Lauren to be in the living room, and Nora to still be with her friends. Instead, he was greeted with a dark home, his mother and Lauren upstairs, and Nora, on the couch, in her dress, crying. Logan knew his sister and knew she would likely not talk to him about it for a few days, so he went to her and calmly stepped into her view. Nora looked up at him and didn't attempt to smile or speak, she just looked at his eyes. Logan put a hand out and she took it. He sat on the ground next to her and they held hands in silence. 

Logan couldn't recall what time he and Nora had gone up to bed, but it was far later than he was used to, evidenced by his lateness of waking up in the morning. Logan spent most of the weeked up in his room and wore large sweatshirts to cover the appearance of his binder. When Tuesday night arrived and Renette came to speak with them he admitted that he was slightly distracted. His thoughts still went to Nora. She had been in her room all weekend and left for school only to return right to her room. Logan didn't know what food she had eaten or at what time, but he was beginning to worry for his sister. She was like him and didn't speak about her emotions often, but when something was troubling her, she was healthy about it and spoke to Logan or their mother. As far as Logan could tell, no conversation was happening. She was shutting herself out. 

When Patton declared he, Remus, Dee and Thomas, could possibly have a plan, Logan pushed away his thoughts of his sister and tried to focus. Though he soon determined that was a mistake. 

"Well, what is it?" Renette asked Patton expectantly. 

"Patton here is kind of known for being able to sense people's emotions right? Megan calls it his sixth sense. It's sort of incredible." Thomas began. "Patton and Virgilius were briefly in close distance with each other last week and he told us something about Virgilius was off. Dee and Remus are the only ones of us that have actually come in contact with him, and they both agree with what Patton said."

"Something about Virgilius is wrong. We tried getting through to him, and it seems like it worked becuase the Dragon Witch had to interfere." Dee continued. "We were thinking, and we know this is risky, but Patton is the best person here at sensing things and helping people. If we can find a way to get him close enough to Virgilius for an extended amount of time, then maybe he can figure out what's so off about him and help him come to our side. Or at least leave the Dragon Witch's side."

"So wait, your plan is to force Patton to be close to Virgilius and hope that he can talk him to our side?" Roman asked. 

"Basically." Remus nodded. 

"Absolutely not." Logan said. "Are you insane? I'm genuinely asking. I know we're desperate, but that is far too great a risk. We have no idea what sort of thing could be causing this unnatural feeling you three have had around him and there's no way of telling if this would actually help."

"Agreed." Roman stated sternly.

"Now, hold on you two." Renette put her hand up. "I understand where they're coming from."

"No!" Logan stopped her. "No, I can't agree with this. Patton, think, Virgilius can teleport and he can teleport other people, this we know becuase he has literally kidnapped Dee in the past. If you get close to him, what's stopping him from kidnapping you. Taking you to the Dragon Witch directly."

"Well-" Patton started but was cut off.

"Not to mention, Thomas, you yourself said that because Dee and Remus were able to get through to him to easily, the Dragon Witch will simply make him hate us more. Patton, I know you want to help him, and I know you're good at helping people, but one conversation with him isn't going to be so easy acheive, let alone convincing him to leave the Dragon Witch's side." Logan was quickly getting angry, though his voice remained steady. "This plan won't work until we have more sufficient data on what is causing you all to believe something about Virgilius is unnatural."

"How are we going to get that data without sending in our own emotional expert here?" Dee pointed to Patton, frustrated with Logan's reaction. "I don't see you coming up with anything genius boy?!"

"We can find a way to understand Virgilius without putting Patton or any of us into more danger than it's worth!" Logan emphasised. 

"We don't have time for some in-depth plan Logan! You haven't been helping us lately but the second we come up with something, becuase you didn't think of it, you won't support it!" Dee yelled. 

"You're making this about your pride Dee." Logan told him. "I don't support your plan becuase it puts Patton in danger that he doesn't need to be in. There are better ways we can go about this. It'll take time but so far there hasn't been an attack, I think we can manage to hold off for another week. I'm not going through with the plan because it's a ridiculous last resort. You're making it seem like I'm attacking you, when I'm not."

"Logan, we have no way of knowing when an attack is coming! We have no idea what's going to happen!" Dee stood quickly, the chair he was in moving back slightly. 

Logan stood as well and crossed his arms. "Stop being so emotional over this Dee-"

"I'm being emotional!!" Dee shouted. "You're kidding right!?! The whole reason you won't go with this plan is because you're mad you didn't come up with it!!"

"That's not-"

"Oh shut up!!" Dee interrupted Logan's rebuttal. "It's either that or becuase Patton's the one who's taking the greatest risk!!! Becuase I know damn well that if Remus was the one who we had to get Virgilius to talk to you wouldn't be so apprehensive!! I may be angry, but I'm angry because you said I'm emotional! You're the one letting your goddamn emotions stop you from agreeing!! If it was me or Remus you wouldn't care so much but becuase it's Patton you have something to say!!!"

With that Dee marched off, angrily stomping up the stairs and slamming the basement door. Everyone was quiet. Logan sat back down and looked to the floor. He didn't know if what he was feeling was shame but it wasn't a good feeling that coursed through him. 

"I'm gonna go find him." Remus whispered.

Logan heard the rustling of his beanbag as he stood and the retreating sound of his footsteps. 

"I uh, don't trust those two upstairs alone." Thomas said. "Renette?"

"Yeah." She said quickly and the two left together. 

It was quiet for a few seconds before Logan felt a hand on his forearm. He lifted his head to see Patton and softened. 

"Logan, I apprecieate you being concerned, but I can do this." Patton said tentatively. " It's a risk, but everything we do is a risk."

"Logan, I don't like the idea either," Roman began. "but there really isn't much more we can do. Maybe we can make the plan safer for Patton but we're gonna need to work on that together."

"I know." Logan sighed. "I should go apologize to Dee. I overreacted. I don't like the plan, but I could have expressed it in a more productive way."

"Maybe just wait a bit." Patton said. "Dee takes some time to calm down and you don't want things to get worse."

Logan nodded, but he still couldn't look the two in the eye. His thoughts drifted back to Nora. It appeared he was more worried for her than he had previously thought. Perhaps his fears were getting to him, causing him to act out. It was a possibility, but it wasn't an excuse.

"There's something else isn't there." Patton sat down on his knees, trying to gain eye contact with Logan who only avoided him further. 

Damn you Patton, Logan thought. "I suppose there is another explaination for my behavior, but it's hardly an excuse to get out of the reprocussions I deserve to face."

"Okay, Lo, for one, you aren't the only one at fault. Dee got really angry, really quick. I know he tends to do that, but it doesn't excuse his reaction. Just know you're not the only one who should be apologizing." Roman said. "And two, what's going on at home?"

"Lo, we know you don't like to talk about stuff with your mom, so we've been giving you space and not asking. We figured you'd come to us if you need anything." Patton continued. "But maybe we've been giving you too much space?"

"No, no." Logan shook his head. "Surprisingly this has little to do with my mother and my reluctancy to come out to her. Her being home certainly has added to my stress, but currently I'd say that I was more concerned."

"About what?" Roman asked. 

"Nora." Logan stated. "She went to homecoming Friday night, and when I returned home, rather than her still being out with her friends like usual, she was on the couch and crying. She's quite like me, in the sense that she rarely speaks about her emotions, but when something is upsetting her to the point of crying, she talks about it to me or our mother."

"I'm guessing she hasn't done that?" Patton was searching Logan's face now, he could feel it.

"Yes. She stayed in her room all weekend, which she never does when Mama is home. She would also only come out of her room right before school and the moment she can she goes right back. It's been days and she has yet to speak about why she's so upset. It's never been this bad before." Logan could feel his body shiver slightly. 

"Do you have any idea what could have happened?" Roman asked. 

"No. Other than knowing it was something that upset her at homecoming, I know nothing." Logan shrugged. 

"Maybe I can talk to her tomorrow." Patton suggested. "We know each other well enough, and she knows you and I are friends right? I can tell her you're worried and that if there's anything I can help with she can let me know."

"That sounds like a good idea patton, but how do you know each other?" Logan asked.

"Megan's a cheerleader and because she doesn't have a car I take her to practices. Sometimes I help out too. The girls are really nice." Patton explained. "Nora and Penelope talk to me when I see them at practice. She talks about you a lot actually."

"Nora and her suggestive mind manipulation." Logan said to really only himself but Patton and Roman had apparently heard.

"Her what?" Patton asked while Roman just laughed a little.

"It's nothing." Logan assured Patton. "Nora wrote an essay about what she calls 'suggestive mind manipulation' in seventh grade and she's been implimenting it in her daily life ever since."

"Oh, so she's smart like you?" Patton smiled. "I should have figured, she does talk about her AP classes."

The conversation drifted off from there. Patton told Logan it was probably okay to go upstairs and talk to Dee. Logan did, and the two quickly apologized to each other. When Logan left Thomas's that night and began his meandering walk home, he felt a little better. A little lighter too. He figured in a few days he'd talk to Nora about how she really needs to stop with the mind manipulation, figuring it was better to stop sooner than later. However, he had to admit, a small part of him selfishly asked if he should let it go on just a little bit longer. Only to see if it worked the way Nora likely predicted. He pushed the thought away and walked up the porch stairs, a small smile on his face.


	11. Experiments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton learns some things and comes to a realization that he should have come to a long time ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Patton centric, YouTuber!Patton, a little reasearch I did for a science project and from watching onlyjayus on TikTok, cheerleading, BBC Sherlock mentioned
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: slight manipulation but it’s all in good faith, invasive parents, repressing emotions, heartbreak

Patton and Megan hopped out of his car and began to walk toward the football field where the cheerleaders were currently warming up to begin practice. He had asked Logan several times that day what he should do to help Nora and all he got in return was 'You always know what to do.' While he appreciated the sentiment, it wasn't as helpful as he had hoped. Patton had asked Megan if she noticed anything about Nora's behavior on Monday practice and she told him Nora was generally quiet during practices, but she was unusally silent the entire time. 

Patton took all of this into consideration when he approached the girls who had already arrived for practice. They greeted him with enthusiastic hellos and went back to their business. Patton began helping coach Green by getting out mats and other items used for warm-ups. Their school had a surprising amount of cheerleaders considering the jokes people made about the sport. Patton had wanted to be a cheerleader for some time and had joined freshman year, but soon figured out his whole reason for joining cheer was because he was a big fan of Glee and absolutely adored Santana. It wasn't until the beginning of sophomore year when he saw seasons four and onward of Glee and decidedly lost interest in ever being a cheerleader. He missed it every now and then, but he simply didn't have the time anymore. 

As he was helping carry impressive weights to the field he spied Nora walking up to practice alone. Patton tired to remember the last time he saw her walking to practice alone and couldn't. She was always with Penelope. Her best friend. Why wasn't Penelope there? In fact, why wasn't Penelope at practice yet and why was Nora not her typically punctual self. She always arrived early to practices and though she was right on time, it seemed wrong. Patton watched Nora from the side of his vision as she set down her bag and wind-breaker. 

He knew that look. That posture. The way she huffed as she relaced her shoes when one had come undone. Nora's eyes were slightly glazed and her shoulders hunched. Her jaw looked clenched and her arms shook just a little. Patton saw it all. She looked so much like Logan in that moment. He tried to remember when he had seen Logan looking like that but the memory wouldn't surface. All he could gather was she was trying to push down how she felt. She was trying not to scream her emotions out and she was scared to let anyone know that wasn't content. 

Practice began with simple stretches and a few jokes tossed around. While the girls were doing lunges with weights-a feat that Patton knew for sure was one of the top five reasons why he couldn't be a cheerleader-Patton decided to get some diary writing done. He began by detailing his most frustrating classes, but it ended up being an entire page dedicated to how he couldn't decide anything about his future. He didn't know what major he would take, let alone what college he wanted to go to. At this point he figured he could go many places, perhaps not Ivy League, but with his student loans essentially paid off by being a Ranger, there wasn't too much holding him back. 

Practice came to a close and Patton closed his note taking app and put his phone in his back pocket. He walked down the bleachers and thanked the coach for letting him sit in. Then he put his half thought through plan into action.

"Hey Nora!" He called out as she went to her bag. 

Nora looked to his direction, her eyes lighting ever so much, before going back. Patton recalled Logan doing that too, though once again, he couldn't place it.

"Greetings Patton." Nora chuckled a little, stooping down to untie her laces and change shoes. 

"Ha, you know, that sounded a lot like Logan." Patton said, trying to keep things light before he asked the hard question.

"So I've been told." Nora looked up at him and smiled. "You and my brother have been talking a lot more lately, huh?"

"Um, yeah I guess so." Patton chuckled. "You know, he's really sweet and stuff. I kinda wish we'd hung out more before this."

"Mhm." Nora raised an eyebrow. 

"Actually we were talking about you yesterday. Logan mentioned something about like, 'mind manipulation', or something along those lines." Patton hoped this would be a good segway. 

"Oh I guess you figured me out huh? Yeah in middle school I read about how simple actions over time condition someone's mind to thinking about certain objects or people. I know it's kinda rude, but I just had to test it." Nora went on. "I read an article about how two people had only met a few times and were considered acquiantances, but through a mutual friend who continuously talked about the other subject and slowly trained them to associate positive feelings with the other subject, the two gained a closer bond that eventually turned romantic."

"Is that so?" Patton tilted his head. 

"Yep, the mutual friend would offer them items that the subjects enjoyed immediately before or after talking about the other test subject and would consistently bring up interesting stories about the other subject in order to make them intrigued and slightly devoted to the other. It was a fascinating study." Nora slipped on her other pair of shoes and stood up to face Patton. "I hope you don't hold too much contempt towards me for testing some of these actions on you. If you do, know that my brother has nothing to do with it and it was soley my idea. He's simply been too embarassed to bring it up and has asked me to stop."

"Oh don't worry, I didn't really get a lot of that to be honest, so no hard feelings." Patton knew it wasn't right to lie, but in this case it seemed like he had to. He could unpack everything she had just said at a later time, right now he was more conerned with helping Nora.

"Right." Nora gave too wide of a smile and pulled out a stick of gum. "Here, I know this is your favorite."

Patton took the gum happily and unwrapped it. How do you know this specific gum company and their very specific flavor is my favorite Nora Montgomery? How?

"And speaking of secret favorites, did you know Logan's secretly very fond of cookie dough. I shouldn't be telling you this because he always talks about how healthy he eats, but you have to know that he's a bit of a hypocrite. Sometimes I catch him making cookie dough that he says he's baking into cookies for Roman and Remus, but he just eats it." Nora was practically smirking. 

"That was an example of your psycology tricks." Patton said softly, chewing on the gum less enthusiastically. 

"Indeed." Nora stated. "I've noticed a few of my experiments on you specifically have been successful."

"Is that so?" Patton was beginning to get a little concerned. 

"Yes. Tell, me, what do you think of when I offer you a cherry coke like this one." Nora pulled a small bottle cherry coke out of her bag and handed it to him. 

Immediately Patton's mind drifted away. He could almost smell the crisp pages of an unused book at the library. He thought of soft eyes that held a deeper understanding of things Patton desperately wanted to uncover, but never could. He could see brown hair that had just a tint of red when the sun hit it just right. Logan. Patton's smile widened just a little bit. 

"Logan." He answered truthfully. 

"See. Last year when Megan joined cheer during spring practices I would go up to you and strike up a conversation about Logan. During those conversation I would offer you a cherry coke. This unknowingly to you, created a connection between cherry coke and Logan in your brain. Associating him with being offered this drink." Nora explained. "I only noticed this particular experiment worked when at a football game earlier in the year Roman offered you a cherry coke and you placed your hand on your forearm much like you're doing now."

Patton looked at his posture only to find he was holding his forearm in his hand. Rubbbing it slightly with his thumb. 

"How-how does that tell you I'm thinking about Logan?" Patton asked, he realized the feeling he was getting in his stomach was nervousness. Perhaps just a little bit of fear.

"My brother isn't one for physcial contact as anyone could guess. However, there are certain physically comforting ways he reaches out to people. For example I've noticed with the two of you, holding each other's forearm is a sign of comfort. For our sister Lauren, Logan will touch her knee with his index and middle fingers, she then reciprocates by holding his fingers in hers. With me, Logan will hold my hand. With Roman it's a hand on the shoulder." Nora confided. 

"You notice a lot about Logan." Patton stated. 

"Well, I notice a lot about a lot of people." Nora stated, putting her bag straps on her shoulders. "And I worry about Logan."

Finally, Patton thought. "He worries about you too Nora." He started. "Which is kind of why I'm gonna ask if everything is alright."

"What do you mean?" Nora asked. 

"Logan told me about how you were, um, crying after homecoming. Is everything okay?"

Nora paused. "Of course he would send you. You're easy to talk to, extremely kind, and understanding."

"Oh uh thank you." Patton responded, though he could tell she didn't really intend to have him hear that.

"Hmm." Nora looked in thought before scnaning the surrounding field where the last few poeple were leaving. "Shouldn't you be taking Megan home?"

"No, she's getting a ride from her friend." Patton said. 

Nora paused for a few beats. She seemed to be debating.

"Patton, you have to understand. Logan and I are very similar. We don't share our emotions so easily"

"I know." Patton tried to ease her growing anxiety. 

"Of course you know." Nora sighed. "Patton, would you mind walking me home? Since my Mama is home Logan can drive you back here to pick up your car." 

"That sounds good." Patton nodded. 

"Thank you." Nora smiled gratefully and the two began their walk. "Patton, as you know I have two very close friends. Penny and Luke."

"Yeah." Patton nodded. 

"Well, my friends, at homecoming, confessed their feelings for one another and have begun dating." Nora said a little sadly. "They've already started talking to me less and somewhat leaving me behind and it's only been five days. Perheps I'm simply overreacting but that doesn't change how I feel."

Patton had an inkling that there was something more but he didn't push it. 

"Patton, as I'm sure you've noticed something else is bothering me, but I'm not so sure talking about that right now is for the best."

"Understandable." Patton reassured. 

"Thank you. Like I said, there's more, but indulging that information to my mother worries me. She means well, but she's invasive. She overreacts easily and I want nothing of her invading my privacy. I'm afraid that me telling her about this will make her go into that state and that is the last thing I need right now." Nora smiled though Patton didn't know why she would be. "And Logan, well, I want to talk to him about it. But something is going on with him. He's spending so much time away from us, and seems sore or bruised randomly. I'm not entirely sure why, but now with Mama home, it appears his weariness is only getting worse. She's been affecting him and it's hard to feel bad about myself when I know what he's going through is much worse. I don't want to weigh him down with my problems as well as his."

"Well, you could also think of it as your very valid issues not being properly discussed, because you're too weighed down by your brother's." Patton smied comfortingly. "It goes both ways Nora."

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Nora stopped, Patton realized they had arrived at her home. 

He didn't know Logan lived so close to the school and field. Nora walked up her porch steps and was about to push inside when she stopped and turned to Patton. 

"Thank you." She said. "I don't like to open up to people that aren't my brother or Mama, but you've always been easy and calming to talk to. You truly don't know how wonderful that feels. I'll send Logan out to drive you back up to your car."

"Oh!" Patton stopped her. "If it isn't too much to ask, can you tell me why you wanted me to think of Logan everytime I think of cherry coke?"

"He has some secret favorites. Eating raw cookie dough, cherry coke, and as he puts it 'the way Patton adjusts his glasses and smiles right before essentially telling someone to F off'." Nora snickered. "I suggest you use that information to your advantage."

With that she gave him a wave and went inside. She may not admit it, but Nora's as much of a fan for the dramatics as Roman, Patton thought smiling. He knew he could just simply walk back up to his car, it wasn't far at all. However, he wanted an excuse to talk to Logan and Patton always preferred face-to-face communication. It was easier to understand. 

Logan appeared in the doorway and stepped out to meet Patton. He didn't say anything but he didn't need to. His eyes lit up like Patton had already seen from Nora, only this time, it didn't fade away. That made Patton unbelievably happy. The two hopped in Logan's mother's car and Logan started it up. 

"How did the talk go?" Lgoan asked. 

"Well, like I said yesterday, Nora's just as smart as you." Patton admitted. 

"Oh that statement is unbelievably true." Logan sighed. "In fact it would not be a stretch to say she is smarter than me. Nora is wise for one, but she also understands people far better than I do. She calls me dense you know. If I was Sherlock Holmes she would be Eurus."

"That episode creeped me out." Patton laughed. 

Logan gave him a smile before looking back to the road. 

"So," Patton decided to say after a little bit of awkward silence. "I didn't know you liked cherry coke."

Logan was quiet, his expression a little startled. "She told me she stopped doing that."

"She did a while ago, but she didn't tell me about it until now." Patton said. 

"I'm so sorry." Logan sighed. 

"It's okay. I think it's kinda funny. I mean, a little rude like she said, considering I had no idea, but funny nonetheless." Patton eased. "Besides, it kinda worked. She gave me a cherry coke and asked me what I was thinking about and I didn't even realize I was thinking about you in that moment until she said something. It's kind of amazing."

Logan looked at Patton with an eyebrow raised very quickly before he started to break for the upcoming red light. Patton saw the parking lot in view and realized how sad he was to leave Logan. Then it hit him. That expression that he had been wondering about before. that look that Nora gave, that look that was so familiar to Patton becuase it was a look he had seen on Logan. In one particular instance he had seen logan with that face and now the memory was surfacing. 

It was the beginning of junior year, Logan and Patton shared third hour and sat next to each other one day. As they were talking Logan brought up Roman playing the lead in the school musical, and Patton commented that his boyfriend at the time was Roman's understudy and played another smaller role. That was when Patton saw that expression. Glazed eyes, hunched shoulders, clenched jaw, shaky arms. All of it. Logan had tried to cover it up quickly, but Patton had that face ingrained into his memory already and it wasn't leaving. 

Logan parked the car on the right of Patton's and looked to him. Patton smiled distractedly and got out, striding over to his own used Nissan family car. He stopped suddenly, realizing he was by Logan's window. 

Heartbroken. That's how Logan looks when he's heartbroken! Patton practically yelled at himself. 

He knocked on Logan's window without thinking. Logan looked to him confused and rolled it down. Before he could say anything Patton leaned over and gave Logan a hug through the window, not an easy thing to accomplish, but he figured it was done well enough. When the two pulled away Patton saw the concern on Logan's face. He figured that was justified. 

"Patton, are you oka-"

Logan was cut off when the two heard a loud rip echo across the parking lot. They turned to look at the source and saw a breach beginning to form. With panicked eyes they looked around the parking lot, empty thankfully. They summoned their Ranger armor and respective weapons. The monsters were already coming through the breach.


	12. Flurry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new face comes to face the Rangers and save to say, everyone is shocked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Deceit(Dee, I swear to god I have a plan for his name just hang on) centric, a new villain, some gays, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, badly written fight scenes and violence, mentions of death/dying, yelling, threats, degradating talk, mentions of food, sympathtic Remus and Janus

Dee reached the parking lot quickly and got right into action, helping Logan and Patton. Thomas arrived soon after and also began aiding the three. There weren't too many witchlings but it was possible this was only the first wave.

When Remus and Roman showed up, they began helping with the fray of witchlings. Soon enough the monsters stopped coming through the breach. The battle was over, far too quickly for Dee not to be suspicious.

"Alright everyone, we know what's about to happen. Stick to the plan." Roman reminded.

They closed ranks and Dee hesitantly looked to Patton. He couldn't see the boy's expression but knew he would be a little nervous. Patton locked eyes with Dee and nodded. The Rangers looked around, waiting for Virgilius to pop-up. Dee knew it was dangerous, it was a long shot, but Patton's the best they've got. It was too quiet. Almost annoyingly quiet. He looked up to Remus who was tense but seemed to be getting just as annoyed as he was.

"Where is he?" Remus whispered.

"I don't know." Dee whispered back.

"This can't be it." Logan said. "He always shows up after. There's no way that small amount of monsters was all there is."

"I don't know." Patton said hesitantly. "Maybe he doesn't want to fight today and they sent them as a warning or something."

"It's possible. She's done that in the past." Thomas added.

Dee's eyes remained trained around him. He couldn't let his guard down. Not now.

"Well, well, well!" A gruff voice said atop the football field announcer's box. The Rangers flinched and turned to see. The person stood there idly, holding a sword, and appeared to be wearing a ridiculous outfit. It was mostly red but had silver accents, and looked like those fake muscles on a superhero costume from Spirit Halloween.

"The hell?" Dee heard Remus scoff next to him. He recognized the scoff he gave when someone wore something so outlandish it actually offended him.

"When the generals spoke of the fearsome Power Rangers, I certainly expected more than this!" The person called out.

Roman cleared his throat and stepped forward, as any leader would, to address the new villain. "Excuse me for being so blunt but uh, who are you?"

"Me?!?!" The person pointed his sword to Roman. "You don't know who I am!?!"

"No bitch! That's why he asked!" Remus yelled.

"Hey!" Patton scolded.

"Sorry!" He threw his hands up and looked away.

"I, you petulant children, am Lord Zedro!" His voice boomed.

The Rangers looked to Thomas, hoping he could provide an explaination, but the man only shrugged.

"You really don't know who I am?" Lord Zedro asked, a little deflated.

"Not a clue."

"Nuh-uh."

"Never heard of ya."

"Nope."

"I would remember a stupid name like yours if I had heard it before!" Dee responded along side the others.

"Well it's no matter!!!" He yelled. "You'll know me soon enough!! I will plague your nightmares after our battle! You will succumb to my power and turn yourselves over, all in hopes of saving your miserable planet!! You will remember the name Lord Zedro for the rest of your lives and you will know it as the name that strikes fear into your hearts. Every time you hear it you will be reminded of the great defeat you felt and you will cower in your cages!!! Lord Zedro will be the name that haunts you until-"

"I'm really not a fan of this guy." Dee said to the others, he could hear Lord Whatever the Frick continuing on in the background.

"He yells a lot." Patton said, covering his ears a little.

"Yeah I'm getting sick of this. He hasn't even noticed we stopped paying attention." Roman told them.

"Dude, I zoned out after he said his stupid name." Remus sighed.

"Do you know anything about this?" Logan asked Thomas.

"He seems like any of the generals I've fought in the past. Cartoony, exaggerated, wears one or two colors only, but I've never heard of him in particular so I'm afraid I'm not much help."

"This guy sucks." Remus crossed his arms.

"I wouldn't have put it like that, but I agree, I'm not a fan." Logan shook his head. "Alright Green, how about you see what he can do."

"Oh yeah." Remus chuckled and summoned his mace.

He took a few steps back and spun a little, gaining momentum, then hurled his mace toward Lord Zedro. The Rangers watched as the mace hit Zedro square in the face, causing him to stumble and fall back. It was quiet again. Until Remus and Dee both burst out laughing. He knew this was a serious situation, but Dee couldn't hold it in. He laughed so hard he was clutching his stomach. Remus had all but doubled over in laughter and wasn't stopping.

"Guys, come on." Logan tried to get them to stop.

"I'm sorry! God I'm so sorry but that was funny as hell." Dee stated, coming out of it a little.

"Did you hear the squish it made when it hit his face?!?" Remus said between laughs. The comment only making the two laugh harder.

Suddenly Dee saw as Patton too burst out into laughter. The three calmed down just a little until Patton put his hand to his helmet and mimicked the squish sound, only making them laugh harder.

"It-it just-it just," Patton began. "it just squished."

Logan's posture indicated he was giving a stern look and Dee tried to once again calm himself down.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Patton shook his head, finally ending his own laughter.

"You dare laugh at me!?!" Lord Zedro screeched as he stood brandishing his sword once again.

Remus continued to chuckled a little and summoned his mace back to his hand. "Sorry Zeddy, I just wasn't expecting you to get decked by my mace."

"Oh you little cretins will pay for this insult!!!" He yelled and jumped up into the air landing on the ground, causing the pavement to cave and crack beneath him.

Remus's giggles stopped. "Oh shit."

"Well you pissed him off, now what?" Dee looked to Remus.

He shrugged and chucked his mace at Lord Zedro again. Dee didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what happened. Zedro held up his sword and blocked the mace mid-air from hitting him. Then with a flick of the wrist, sent the mace off to his right. It landed in the pavement with a crack and disappeared.

"Okay, I'm tapping out, someone tap in." Remus looked to the others.

"I have a bow, I'm not exactly cut out for this." Patton stated.

"I don't think my daggers will do the trick."

"Red has a sword." Logan said.

"Yeah! Red, you're up!" Remus shoved his brother froward.

"Whoa whoa, why are we doing this one on one exactly? Can't we all fight him?" Roman looked to the others exasperated.

"Shit turn around!" Dee yelled.

Roman followed the direction and held up his own sword just in time to catch Lord Zedro's before it hit him. The metal of the swords clanked and Dee could swear he saw sparks.

"Oh you're strong Red." Lord Zedro practically laughed. "But not strong enough."

"We'll see about that." Roman replied.

Roman started to push forward with his sword. Lord Zedor did as well and the swords slipped pushing both backwards. Lord Zedro straightened his back and smiled strangely. Dee heard snarling behind him and turned. Monsters had once again begun coming through the breach.

"Oh dammit." Logan said, annoyance filling his voice. "Okay, uh, Red you handle Lord-whatever-the-Hell, we'll take care of the minions."

"Excuse me-" Lord Zedro began.

"Witchlings!" Remus shouted.

"Drop it Remus, the name isn't gonna stick!" Roman told him.

The Rangers hopped back into action. Patton raised his bow and rapid fired into the crowd of witchling as they filled the lot. Logan threw his lance at one that was a little closer by and followed it, pulling teh lance out of the monster with a grunt and moving on to the next. Thomas sprang into action with the other two and swung his axe at the closer witchlings. Dee and Remus wasted no time, they ran into battle. Remus bent down and Dee ran to him, allowing Remus to hoist Dee into the air and making Dee jump, landing on the larger of the witchlings and effectively stabbing two daggers into its head. Dee landed on his feet as the monster below him disintegrated. Behind him he heard Remus cackle as he swung the mace back and forth. Dee smiled devilishly and gripped his daggers firmly. He turned to closer witchlings and continued slashing them down. In the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Roman and Lord Zedro, the two locked in battle. 

Dee looked around and saw two witchlings coming directly for him. He summoned a dagger and threw it at one, making it stumble but not turn to dust. In the time that the first one stumbled Dee was able to grab the dagger he had thrown, pull it out of where it sank into the witchling's chest, spin to the back of the monster and stab it in the back with the same dagger. As it fell to dust Dee summoned a second dagger and threw the two at the second witchling. He raced forward to that one as well and sank a third one into its stomach. The witchling dissapated and his daggers fell to the ground. 

Dee stood and smiled smugly, he felt a little pang of satisfaction as he looked at the dust by his feet. He surveyed the area again and saw as Thomas finished off a witchling and Logan and Patton double teamed another. Remus however, he couldn't see. Dee guessed he was at the center of a particular horde of witchlings. Dee sighed, guessing he should help the twin, and ran over to the circle of monsters. 

Like he had figured, Remus was battling them like a mad-man. Dee threw his daggers at a few on the outside and effectively got them to turn his way. They charged at him and Dee to them. When the first one was close enough he threw more daggers at its legs, knocking it down to its knees. Dee jumped up and landed his left foot on its chest, pushing himself father into the air. He threw another dagger at the second witchling causing it to stumble just in time for Dee to land his right foot on its shoulder and push off, finally he summoned and threw a dagger at the last chargnig witchling. It landed between the witchling's eyes and it's head went back. Dee's foot stepped driectly on it's face and he jumped over one side of the circle of monsters, landing next to Remus. Then he lost his balance and fell back, Dee sat on the ground, miffed, but eventually started laughing. 

"Damn, you were doing really good." Remus laughed. He lent Dee a hand and helped him up to his feet. "Until of course you landed on your ass."

"Shut up." He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm trying to help you here."

"Aww do you actually care about me? Don't want to see me die a grusome death?" Remus went back to hacking away at the witchlings. 

"Well, your death would certainly be an inconvenience." Dee grunted as he sliced his dagger through a witchling. 

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me Dee." Remus told him, little emotion in his voice. "You're getting soft." 

"And you're-"

"Shit!" Remus suddenly shouted from behind Dee. 

He turned to see a witchling had grabbed Remus's arm and effectively shoved him to the ground. It's snarling face hovered over Remus's. The Green Ranger tried to move and get out from under it, but it's grip was stronger. 

Oh hell no, Dee thought angrily. He pulled the dagger he had shoved into a witchling out of its body and threw it at the one on top of Remus. The dagger only got its attention turned to Dee. Its head snapped up and brandished sharp teeth at him. Luckily Remus got the idea and took its distracted moment to kick it swiftly in the stomach. The witchling howled and was back on its feet. Dee summoned two daggers to his hands and jumped, landing on the minion and sinking the blades into its neck. The monster turned to dust and Dee landed calmly on his feet. He looked over his shoulder at Remus still on the ground. 

"Like I said, your death would be an inconvenience." He said. "And I'm not really in the mood to be inconvenienced."

"Mhm." Remus nodded, his voice curt. "If my arm didn't hurt so bad I'd say that move you pulled was really hot, but that asshole really did something."

"You able to get up?" Dee asked, a bit more concerned now. 

"Yeah, just-just gimmie a sec." 

"Oh no please, take all the time you need, not like there's a horde of monsters trying to kill us." Dee rolled his eyes. 

"You sir," Remus sat up, Dee could have guessed he was scowling. "are a bitch."

"And you," Dee chucked daggers at one of the witchlings as it came closer behind Remus. "are gonna get yourself killed."

"Oh my bad, wouldn't want to inconvenience you." Remus scoffed, pushing himself up with his arm that Dee guessed wasn't hurting. Dee could almost feel Remus rolling his eyes. "Ow, ow, ow, ow." remus suddenly grabbed at his arm. 

"Whoa, whoa." Dee rushed over to him. "Okay, what the hell did that thing do to you?" 

"I don't know Dee, I'm not a doctor!" Remus told him. "All I know is it grabbed me and-look out!!" 

Dee only had time to think, what the, before Remus grabbed him and pulled him down. Dee saw as a witchling's arms slashed at where he had previously been. Remus summoned his mace with the hand that wasn't attatched to his hurt arm and swung, hitting the wingling's side and knocking it to the ground. Then Remus strode over to it in two steps and repeatedly smacked it with his mace until it turned to ash. Dee watched with wide eyes until it faded away and he turned, clearing his throat a little. 

"So I think we're even." He sasid quieter than he had intended. 

"Ya think?!" Remus yelled over his shoulder. 

Dee looked around checking to see if there were any more witchlings heading toward them. He saw a few near Thomas but he looked like he could handle it. Patton was on top of someone's minivan and was firing arrows at the witchlings that surrounded him, and Logan wasn't too far from Patton, slashing away at a few closer monsters. Roman didn't seem to be doing super good however. 

Lord Zedro had him stepping back as he attacked Roman swiftly with his sword. Roman was clearly on defense and was getting tired, evidenced by his slower movements. 

"Roman." Dee heard Remus say. 

The two looked at each other and began running for Roman. 

"Roman duck!!" Dee yelled

Roman followed his instruction and ducked down. Dee threw his daggers at Lord Zedro. They sank into his chest but it didn't have any effect other than probably pissing him off. Lord Zedro yelled in disdain and turned to Remus and Dee running toward him. Dee flicked his wrist, making the daggers fade away and he summoed two new ones to his hands. Roman took the opportunity to slash his sword along Lord Zedro's shins and pull away. Roman stood and went to Remus and Dee who stood by him, all three breathing heavy. Lord Zedro peered at the three with a sharp look. 

"Can you two cover him?" Roman asked. 

"Yep." Dee said and Remus nodded. 

"Good." Roman gave an affirmative look to the two and began to run to the right while Dee and Remus sprinted to Zedro. 

Remus went up and swung his mace to Lord Zedro's head and he blocked it with his sword, only to have Dee slash at his stomach with the daggers. Dee and Remus stood on either side of the villain now. He swung his sword and hit Remus in the back with the front of his blade. Remus tossed his mace to Dee who caught it and smacked Zedro in his own back, causing him to stumble forward a little. He turned and brought his sword down to Dee who threw the mace up and summoned two daggers, using them to block the villain. He and Zedro stood like that for half a second until Dee dropped to his knees and Remus used Dee as a stepping block for him to push off of and grab his mace mid-air and come down on Zedro's head. The move however, wasn't as successful as they had hoped and Lord Zedro brought his sword up, blocking Remus's attack. 

The villain smirked and grabbed at Remus's neck and head, getting a firm grip before flinging the Green ranger down to the cement. Remus landed with a stomach dropping thud and Dee looked over to him. He could feel his blood drain from his face, but boil with anger. 

"Oh you really are a bitch." Remus coughed and laughed. 

Dee shouted angrilly and brought his daggers up, trying to slice at Zedro's neck. The villain grabbed his wrists and laughed mockingly. He lifted Dee up off his feet slightly and threw him down by Remus. 

"Dee!" Remus exclaimed. 

Dee hurriedly got to his knees and looked over Remus. "Don't you dare try to get up Remus."

Remus didn't listen and got to his own knees. Though his movement must have been too quick because he put his hands to his head and groaned a little. 

"How pathetic you are. I really did expect better frm the Power Rangers. Especially you Green. The things I heard about the fearsome Green Power Ranger couldn't be father from the truth. It's sad how pitiful you are." Lord Zedro chuckled. "dare I even say you're worthless."

Remus and Dee summoned their weapons just in time for him to bring his sword down to them. They stopped the brunt of his attack and looked up to his face as he sneered. Then Dee heard as Roman's sword pierced the villain's back. Lord Zedro's face dropped to shock. Remus and Dee dropped their weapons and scurried back a little. Roman stood there holding his sword and panting angrilly. 

"Call my brother worthless again asshole, see where it gets you." Roman dared, his voice full of venom. 

With a grunt Roman pulled his sword out of the villain's back and he fell to the ground in a huff. His body turning to red ash as it hit the cement. 

"Remus, god please be okay." Roman dropped his sword and fell to his knees by his twin and Dee. "Red Ranger, deactivate."

Remus and Dee followed Roman and deactivated their armor. Roman rached a hand out and put it on his brother's shoulder, looking into his eyes. 

"I'm fine Roman." He said. "Just a headache."

"I don't trust that's true." Roman laughed. "If you have a concussion I'm gonna be pissed."

"And mom's gonna kill us." Remus said quietly.

"Yeah." Roman sighed and turned to Dee. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, he didn't throw me as hard as Remus." Dee responded. He looked back at Remus and assessed him. "Your arm?"

"Still hurts but like I said, I'm fine." Remus replied. 

"What did you do to your arm?" Roman asked. 

"A witchling grabbed him hard." Dee told him, softly grabbing the hurt arm and examining the skin, it was red where the monster had grabbed him, but wasn't bleeding. "Try bending it."

Remus didn't say anything. Dee looked up to Remus puzzled and saw him staring at Dee gratefully. Dee thought for a second he saw admiration, or something else, in his eyes. 

"You called it a witchling." Remus whispered. 

Dee didn't know what to say, so he didn't speak at all. He only gave a shrug and motioned for Remus to move his arm. Roman stood and said he was gonna check on the others before leaving the two. Remus started to move his arm and strained a little. Then as he let his arm go back to its resting position the pain showed deeply on his face and he wimpered a little. 

"I think it's hyper extended." Dee said. "I'm sure Thomas can give you a wrap or something for it." 

Remus nodded. Dee lifted his hand to Remus's jaw and looked into his eyes, trying to see if his pupils were dialated strangely or any other signs of a concussion. When he saw nothing that raised alarm Dee sat back on his knees and wiped the sweat off of his face with his shirt. 

Behind him Logan, Patton, and Thomas deactivated their Ranger suits. It was quiet between the Rangers. Until a ringing came from one of the cars. Dee watched as Logan went over to it and reached inside, answering the phone that must have been his. 

"Mama?" Logan asked. "Mama, don't worry I'm fine. Yeah, Patton and I had to run from the parking lot. We're both okay Mama. I'm not hurt or-" Logan stopped, listening to his mom. Dee saw as his face shifted to slight confusion. "What do you mean 'who's the girl in red'?" Then some sort of realization dawned on him. "Mama no! Don't look up the singer Girl in Red! No it's nothing bad Nora's not in trouble just don't!" 

Logan looked at his phone screen. His mom must have hung up. 

"Is everything okay?" Patton asked. 

"I think my sister's Spotify is about to out her to my mom." Logan said before rushing to the driver's side of his car and looking back to Patton and Roman. "I need to get home."

The two nodded and Logan got in his car, turning on the ignition and driving away. Patton, Roman, and Thomas began walking over to Dee and Remus. 

"I need to head home too." Patton said. "Megan and my mom are gonna be worried. I'll see you guys tomorrow okay?"

Everyone said a nice good bye to Patton. 

"Remus let me know if I can do anything to help." Patton told him, and with that began his walk to his car. 

It was quiet between the four before Dee told Thomas what he thought of Remus's arm. Thomas told him that he could help him set his arm and make sure it didn't get injured any more. 

"I want a flurry." Remus only said. 

"What?" Roman asked. 

"I want a flurry. Like a McDonald's flurry." He told his twin. "I think I earned a flurry."

"Remus we should set your arm." Thomas tried. 

"I'd rather get a flurry." He said as if he had been asked if he wanted a drink instead.

"We can get a flurry on the way to getting your arm set." Dee suggested. 

"And I want fries." Remus added.

The three decided to leave Remus be and converse with each other.

"Dee, how about you take Remus to get some McDonald's and come by my house after?" Thomas suggested. "I don't think he'd like it very much if he didn't get what he wanted."

"No I would not." Remus said a little bit of offense in his voice.

"I'll go home and tell my parents something about why we're gone and why Remus is late." Roman sighed. "It's better if I tell them and not him."

"Good idea." Dee nodded. 

The two said their goodbyes to the pair and left Dee and Remus sitting next to each other. Dee wiped at his sweat yet again and turned to Remus. He was going to ask Remus to get up and follow him to McDonald's but stopped when Remus's expression showed deep confusion.

"What?" Dee asked.

"Your face." Remus said. 

"What do you mean my-" Dee stopped, he looked down at his shirt and saw the dark foundation and sweat that splattered it. His stomach dropped.


	13. Gerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus decides he needs to open up, before he possibly loses one of his only true friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Remus centric, deep talk, vitiligo, stuffed animals
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: sympathetic Remus and Janus, abandoning, mention of narcotics, mention of self-loathing, angst, hospital visit, concussion, implied parental issues, throwing up, talks of manipulative friendships, self-degrading talk, (I know it’s a lot of warning but please let me know if anything else should be mentioned, thank you)

"Dee, what's going on with your foundation?" Remus asked, he couldn't tell if he was so unfocused because he hit his head, because Dee was so close to him Remus could smell his shampoo, or a combination of both.

All of Remus's senses felt like they were going into overdrive. He could hear his heartbeat pouding in his ears. The rough concrete beneath him was picking at Remus's skin as he ran his fingers along it. Remus felt a taste bubble in the back of his throat but he didn't know what it was. In front of him Dee sat, he was so close, Remus smelled the flowery shampoo. He always preferred flower shampoo, but it was always strange that Dee was the person using it. Why is it so distincly his? Remus thought. Why doesn't he use normal shampoo? Why the expensive flowery kind?

Remus remembered the question he had asked and looked back to Dee for a response but saw something he didn't like in Dee's eyes. It didn't scare him, just made him uneasy to see his friend looking so petrified. Remus put his palm to Dee's jaw and looked at the pale skin that Dee had maticulously padded dark foundation over. Dee again didn't move away from Remus's touch, but his eyes were pointedly staring down. Remus looked at the skin, confused and a little worried his friend was racist, but he stroked his thumb across the exposed peach skin and past it, rubbing up some foundation. Then he moved his other hand to the other side of Dee's face, carefully stroking his thumb across his cheek, dark foundation, and under it dark skin. Remus leaned down, forcing Dee to look him in the eyes.

"Dee, what's going on?"

"I need to go." Dee stated curtly. 

"What?" Remus asked.

"I said I need to go." Dee stood harshly.

"Wait, hang on, what-what do you mean?" Remus heard his words slurring a little.

"I mean that I need to get home." Dee said coldly and briskly moved to his car.

"Wait Dee, hang on I-" Remus tried to stand and follow him but his headache worsened terribly and he sat back down. "Dee, I don't-"

Remus was too late, the car was pulling out of the lot and he was alone. He could hear cars beginning to head their way and assumed news reporters of some kind were on their way. Remus tried to get up, slowly this time however, and he began a walk away. As he left he could hear cars and vans pulling up to the lot and opening and closing doors. The people shouting instructions faded, but instead of silence, a faint ringing replaced them. Remus neared his house and went to his brother's window, inside he saw Roman sitting on his bed, he had no phone so he probably got grounded. Remus tapped three times and his brother popped up and looked to him in confusion.

"Remus?" Roman asked as he lifted the window. "What the heck, you're supposed to be getting your arm fixed by Thomas."

"Yeah, uh, Dee kinda ditched me at the parking lot." Remus told him.

"What?" Roman asked and started helping his brother inside.

"It's fine, I think something's going on with him I just don't know what." Remus tried to tell his brother.

"Are you okay?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good, I don't think my arm hurts anymore, it's just a headache."

"Remus there's something-"

"It's nothing Roman." Remus said.

"Did you walk all the way here?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you text me?"

"My phone is in your car." Remus told him. "Look, Ro, can the interrigation wait until later, I'm really not feeling good."

"I-yeah, yeah sure." Roman nodded.

Roman helped Remus to his room upstairs and Remus vaguely heard his brother tell their parents something about him being sick. When Remus got to his room he shut all the blinds and used his extra pillows to cover the windows. When he finally collapsed on his bed Remus sighed and began rolling around trying to find a good position.

The next thing Remus recognized was the sounds of his phone alarm waking him up. He groaned and lifted his head, seeing the phone on his desk next to a glass of water and two pills. Roman, Remus thought and rolled over grasping the pills and swallowing. He took the water and drank it quickly. Remus, though his head wouldn't stop pounding, trudged himself out of bed and into his bathroom. There he looked at himself in the mirror and tried to get situated for school.

"Hey Remus how are you?" Roman asked from the door.

"Good." Remus croaked out to him.

"O-okay." Romas said, unsure. "Look, if you're sick or something you shouldn't go to school-"

"No!!" Remus heard his mother yelled from downstairs. "Remus is going to school!! He already missed that Tuesday and I don't want people to talk."

"Mom, Remus could be-"

"Roman I'm not in the mood!" She cut him off.

"You're never in the mood." Roman grumbled loud enough for him and Remus to hear.

Remus groaned as he pulled himself together and tried to look good enough for the brief moment when his mother would see him. Remus quickly washed his face and fixed up his hair like Roman's. In his room Remus pulled on ripped washed black jeans and a green sweatshirt that he had cut into a crop-top himself. He went downstairs to the kitchen and was greeted by Roman who threw a big jacket at him and grumbled something about mom not going to like the crop-top. Remus put it on knowing his brother was right, and entered the dining room. A spread of breakfast food was strategically placed around the table, looking ever so formal. Remus reached across to grab a piece of toast, but at that moment his mother walked by and smacked his hand.

"No touching the food, it's not for you. We're having some friends over for brunch."

Remus rolled his eyes and walked away. Roman motioned for him to head to the garage and the two hopped in Roman's jeep. Once they got to school the two split up. Remus walked down the hallways as they began to fill with other students. A group of freshmen walked by and said 'hi' to Remus who greeted them back. Then the ringing in his ears slowly began returning and soon it was almost all he could hear. The school bell rang three times as usual but it only made Remus's headache worsen. The lightheadedness began to overwhelm him and Remus moved to a close wall and leaned against it, trying to get his bearings.

"Hey Remus," Someone cheery beside him greeted. "are you okay?"

"What?" Remus turned to see Patton looking at him very concerned. "Yeah I'm fine Pat."

"You, uh, you don't look too fine." Patton put a hand to Remus's forehead, likely trying to find a sign of a fever.

"Pat 'mm fine." Remus pushed the hand away.

"Patton, Remus, good to see you both. I-" Logan walked up to the two but stopped quickly and looked at Remus closely. "Remus are you sick?"

"What?" Remus put a hand to his ringing ear.

"Is your ear okay?" Patton asked.

"Yeah." He grunted, his vision began blurring slightly.

"Remus you certainly don't appear to be alright." Logan stated. "You seem-"

"I'm gonna throw up." Remus choked out.

"What?!" Patton moved to Remus's side. "We've gotta get you to a bathroom."

"Ohh, I'm gonna throw up." Remus whined.

"Lo can you-"

"Yeah here." Logan began helping Patton move Remus to the nearest bathroom.

They reached the bathroom and Remus raced to the nearest stall. He got on his knees and promptly threw up in the toilet. Patton sat next to him and rubbed a soothing hand along his back trying to help him.

"I'm gonna call Roman." Logan told Patton.

Remus finished and sat back on his heels. Patton nodded to Logan and continued to try and sooth Remus by pulling out a napkin from his bag and wiping his mouth. Remus sank into Patton's chest and tried to calm himself.

"Logan why the heck are you calling me?" Roman asked from the phone when Logan put it on speaker.

"Patton and I are in the bathroom with Remus right now, he's just thrown up." Logan explained.

"What?!" Roman yelled and they heard shuffling over the phone.

"It's not a lot-"

"Probably because I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday."

"Remus!" Patton scolded a little.

"You what?!" Roman yelled over the phone.

"Roman, I think your brother may have a concussion." Logan stated.

"Oh god no, okay um, which bathroom are you in?"

"The science wing."

"Got it, I'll meet you there. Can uh, one of you get Thomas please. I'll drive Remus to the clinic in town. See ya in a sec." Roman hung up.

"Remus can you stand up please?" Logan asked.

"No, no, no." Remus shook his head. "I'm not listening to you."

"What?"

"I'm not listening to you Brainy." Remus slurred. "I'll do what Patton says and only Patton."

"Okay then." Logan rolled his eyes and stood. "Patton can you please-"

"Yep." Patton nodded and started adjusting so Remus could stand easier. "Remus can you stand for us please? I know it hurts but we've gotta get you to a doctor."

"M'okay." Remus nodded and started moving.

The other two were able to shuffle Remus out of the bathroom to Roman just as the final bell rang. The hallways were mostly empty and they rushed to the front. Remus's grip on the things around him was going in and out and he barely recognized when he was being loaded into the car. The started up and began driving away. Patton sat next to Remus in the back and was talking to someone on the phone, but Remus couldn't focus on what he was saying.

"Ro Ro." Remus called.

"Yeah?" Roman asked from the driver's seat.

"I'm so tired." He said. 

"Okay, we'll be at the clinic soon so just hang on." Roman stated.

Remus was fading in and out the entire ride and the faint ringing wouldn't stop. When the car stopped he could feel the others helping him out of the car and getting him inside. A few patients were already in the waiting room so Patton and Logan sat Remus down while Roman went up to the receptionist. They sat and waited, until Thomas came in and told them to get up and get Remus back there. They were confused but Thomas simply told Nurse Iona something and they were rushed to a room.

Remus was so extremely tired. He was sat on the bed and he fell back against it in a huff. He sighed and promptly fell asleep.

When he woke up his brother, Patton, Logan, and Thomas were around him. Not watching him, just talking to each other with worried faces. Nurse Iona stood close by observing Remus carefully.

"The next time something like this happens you go to Nurse Iona and you tell her the color of the hurt Ranger and the last time of attack." Thomas stated.

"Okay." Roman nodded. The other two also showed that they understood.

"What's going on?" Remus asked.

"Remus." Roman looked down to his brother. "You feeling better?"

"Yeah, yeah." Remus nodded. "Mom's gonna kill us."

"You bet she is." Roman laughed. 

"Oh god how much is this gonna cost?" Remus groaned. "This is why we need free healthcare."

Roman laughed and shook his head.

"Remus, what were you doing going to school? And why didn't you show up at my house to fix your arm last night? I could have checked you for a concussion better there and you must have been feeling this bad at least since then."

"Remus walked home and our mom made him come to school 'cause he already missed that Tuesday." Roman explained.

"You walked home?" Patton asked.

"Yeah, Dee ditched him in the parking lot."

"He did what?" Patton looked to Remus for confirmation.

"It's fine, something happened with him-"

"Are you kidding me?" Roman scoffed.

"Remus, you were clearly not okay after being thrown on the ground." Logan stated. 

"I don't care about that guys. Really. Dee wouldn't just leave me there, something happened. I'm just not sure what." Remus sighed. "What I am worried about is mom getting pissed."

Nurse Iona cleared her throat and turned to the boys. "Roman, correct?"

"Yes." Roman nodded. 

"Great, can you and I talk for a second?" She asked. Roman nodded and stood. "I'm gonna have to ask the rest of you to leave the room and I suggest soon you boys get back to class."

Thomas, Patton, and Logan left the room and sat outside, closing the behind them.

"What does he mean your mother is gonna kill you?" The Nurse turned on Roman. "Does she not know? Why would she be angry?"

"Um, yeah no our mom doesn't know, I haven't called her."

"She made your brother go to school with a concussion?" Iona asked apalled.

"She-she really didn't know." Roman tried.

"And she's going to blame your brother for this?"

"Remus gets into a lot of trouble, she-uh," Roman looked away. "she's trying to keep us out of trouble 'cause my dad is running for congress in like a year or something. She'll just be a little mad."

"Okay." Nurse Iona didn't look convinced but she didn't say anything else.

"Is Remus okay?" Someone asked from the door.

Remus and Roman turned to see a frantic looking Dee in the doorway, staring right at Remus.

"What are you doing here?" Roman grumbled, striding over to Dee.

"I called him Ro." Patton said, also stepping into the room.

"Why would you do that, he's the reason Remus got this bad."

"Roman I'm sorry, I-I didn't know he had a concussion. I thought-"

"Dee shut up! It doesn't matter whether you knew he had a concussion or not. You still left him in a parking lot, with a busted arm, after he was thrown on the ground by a lunatic! He walked all the way home!" Roman gestured to Remus.

"I'm really sorry Roman. I-"

"Don't say sorry to me. I'm just pissed at you! Say sorry to Remus!" Roman pointed a finger at Dee's chest. "You've been saying sorry to my brother a lot lately you know. First you say all that stuff about him a couple months ago-"

"Roman." Remus interrupted.

"then the other Tuesday, he couldn't come to school because Kayley set him back so far with the shit she said to him and you let her get away with it-"

"Roman." Remus attempted again.

"now you leave him in a freaking parking lot with no phone to walk home by himself after-"

"Roman, that's enough." Patton put a hand on Roman's shoulder. "Please, just look at Remus."

Roman did and saw his brother staring up at him, begging him to shut up.

"Can I talk to you outside Thomas?" Nurse Iona asked.

"Yeah." Thomas nodded.

"How about we go out there too Roman?" Patton asked. "You need a break."

"There's a vending machine down the hall with M&Ms." Logan stated. "I'll buy."

"Fine." Roman grumbled.

They left Remus and Dee alone in the room. It was quiet.

"Remus I'm really sorry I just-"

"Dee, we literally had just gotten done with fighting a red He-Man lookin' asshole." Remus started. "And yet, the second I said something about your face, I had never seen you so scared."

"Rem-"

"You don't have to explain. You didn't know about this," Remus gestured to his head. "and I don't care. You-you're a bitch, but you don't just leave people like that unless something happened."

"Remus stop giving me excuses." Dee sat in the chair next to him. "Roman's right. I did a shit thing to you and it's not okay."

"Dee, I seriously don't care." He stated.

"You should, I'm an asshole like you said."

"No, I said you're a bitch. There's a difference."

"Of course." Dee rolled his eyes.

Remus gave his friend a smile and let out a long breath. Dee leaned closer to him and began moving Remus's bangs out of his face and toying with them. Remus's senses overwhelmed again, but a little bit easier than before. Still with that freakin' flower shampoo. He didn't realize Dee was staring at him until he started staring back. Dee didn't stop playing with his hair when the two locked eyes, he only smiled and continued on.

"Hey Dee," Patton said from the door. "Logan, Thomas, and I are heading back to the school. Thomas said you should come too."

"Okay." Dee nodded. "I'll be out there in a sec."

Patton nodded back and walked around the corner.

"I gotta go Remus."

"I know."

"I'll talk to you later. Is that cool?" Dee stood up and pulled his hand back.

"You know I wouldn't say no." Remus smiled.

. . .

That next Friday night Remus sat up in the tree house behind their home pillows and blankets surrounded him, a small wireless tv in front of him, and Netflix playing on it. He wasn't paying too much attention to what was playing, instead he was sketching in the book he had stolen a year ago. Remus was almost at the end of it, and it was more than full of crude drawings and designs. Most of them punk, lots of chains, flannels, and jackets.

Currently, he was using reference pictures he had taken of his mom's latest buys from M.M.LaFleur. Her high-end, strict, expensive clothing made Remus want to gag. It was so uptight. He had decided to make his newest design a play on the formality of the clothing by tearing it up, adding patches, chains, and fishnets. He wasn't a big fan of what he had drawn so far, but it was really only the beginning.

Remus heard someone climbing up the ladder and assumed it was Roman, so he quickly shoved the sketchbook and utensils under the nearest pillow.

"Hey." Dee's head popped up from the trap-door and he looked over to Remus.

"You're here." Remus said, a little surprised.

"Yeah." Dee smiled, and helped himself up into the tree house with one arm, a grocery bag in the other. "Should you be watching tv?"

"As long as I don't throw up all over the place I'm fine." Remus shrugged pausing the movie.

Dee laughed a little and walked over. "What are you doing in a tree house?"

"You saw the cars in the front." Remus shrugged. "My parents are having their 'friends' over. And I can't exactly be in there. With or without a concussion."

"So they stick you up here?"

"Better than down there in a sea of people with sticks in their asses." Remus chuckled. "I actually think Roman's got it worse."

Dee sat down in front of Remus and moved the grocery bag to him. "I-uh, brought you this."

Remus opened it and found a McDonald's bag inside, two bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos, a container of something Remus couldn't see because the lid was pearly white, something pink, and a stuffed animal. Remus pulled the stuffed animal out first. He looked at it not really understanding, until the memory struck him.

"You still have Gerald?" Remus looked over to Dee smiling in question.

"Yeah, I-I need to talk to you. I kinda figured he would help me start."

"Okay." Remus nodded, and placed Gerald the octopus down next to him. He grabbed the McDonald's and opened it, inside an oreo flurry and a medium fries. "You got the McDonald's."

"Mhm." Dee replied.

"I'll eat this while you talk." Remus stated, pulling out the fries and motioning to Dee.

"Good idea." Dee nodded. "Remus have you ever heard of vitiligo?"

"Is that a type of STD?" Remus asked before going for the flurry.

"What? No! No, no, no, it's a skin condition where people lose the pigment in of their skin in patches."

"Oh, I think I've seen that." Remus said.

"Yeah, Remus, I um, I have vitiligo." Dee stated.

"Huh?" Remus looked at him."

"Hang on." Dee rached into the bag and pulled out the pink thing. He opened the lid on it and pulled out a wipe.

Remus watched as Dee wiped off the makeup, from the top of his face to the bottom. When Dee looked back up at Remus, his makeup was mostly gone, with just a few smudges around the frame of his face. From the middle of his right eye to his jaw down the cheek was a pale peach, and almost in the center of his face another smaller white patch on his hairline. Remus stared in awe.

"You look so hot." Remus said to himself, but Dee had heard and laughed a little. "Seriously, you look badass."

"Yeah okay." Dee looked away before turning back to Remus.

"But you cover it up." Remus said, almost sad.

"Yeah." Dee looked down.

"Why?" Remus asked.

"Remus," Dee wouldn't look up to him. "I've been doing this since sophomore year and I can't-it's just-she's-"

"Kayley." Remus deadpanned. Dee looked up to her.

"She has a look that she wants and-and this doesn't exactly go with it." Dee motioned to his face. 

"Jesus, Dee." Remus looked at him appalled. "I can't-how do you just let her do this to you?"

"When I first got here in sophomore year she told me she could get me instant popularity and immunity in this school. How could I say no? I knew no one and she was the only one offering. I just had to follow her rules." Dee shrugged.

"And what are her rules, huh?! Be the most stereotypical gay best friend from a Netflix film or my minions will destroy your rep?!" Remus didn't really know who he was yelling at. "That's bullshit!! It's total bullshit! I mean that's-

"Not good. Not good at all." Dee shook his head. 

"No, it's not." Remus sighed.

"Remus I got myself in this mess." Dee stated. "I can get myself out."

"Dee-"

"I don't want you to do anything." Dee stated. "Please. Don't try to help me. I've been living like this for over two years. I've just gotta make it these next few months. Please for me, don't tell anyone."

"I won't." Remus said. "But I'm still gonna kill the bitch."

"I know you'll try." Dee gave him a smile, but his face turned more serious. "Remus can you tell me what happened that Tuesday?"

"What Tuesday?"

"You know when I'm talking about. That Tuesday." Dee said. "In the hospital, Roman said Keyley said something that set you back. Please tell me what happened."

"Dee I don't really think you want to know-"

"I mean it Remus. I want to know what she said to you."

"Okay." Remus grabbed Gerald next to him and queezed. "Kayley told me to get to the meeting spot early so I filled the usual bag with some oregano 'cause she's stupid. I got there early, and she wasn't there. I waited around, and I started thinking. Pat had asked me about college and I told where I wanted to go. He said he wanted to help me get in, and we talked for a while."

"Yeah you kinda told me what he said." Dee nodded.

"I was gonna leave. Then she finally showed up and I told her that I didn't want to give her anything and that I had to go." Remus swallowed. "But then she started yelling. She just went on and on about. . . Dee I had a crush on you in like sophomore or junior year and I thought that she didn't know. That I kept it from her. But she knew and she started talking about how you're so smart and wonderful and good to me and how I don't deserve you. How I'll never be good enough for you and how I'm terrible and-"

"Remus." Dee put his hand over the one that covered the stuffed animal. "No spiraling."

"Right." Remus looked to the hand. "She just kept yelling and yelling and I hate it when she yells and I don't know why, but I hate it." He practically sneered. "I didn't feel good about it so I told her something about her hair I think and I just ran. I had to get home."

"And it set you back?" Dee asked, squeezing his hand reassuringly.

"I've been dealing with the whole self-hate thing since seventh grade. It's not a big deal but it's been a while since someone like her said that stuff about me to my face." Remus shrugged. "I couldn't go to school."

Dee told Remus he didn't have to go any further. He moved over next to Remus and put an arm around his shoulders.

"This is the deepest conversation we've ever had." Remus laughed.

"God it's so sad." Dee laughed with him.

"Let's never do this again." Remus shook his head.

"Mmm agreed." Dee closed his eyes and leaned into Remus who leaned back.

"You never told me about Gerald." Remus whispered.

"Right." Dee noted. "I don't want secrets beween us, okay?"

"You got it."

"Okay, to be honest I don't know why I kept Gerald for so long. You accidentally left him with me and I tried to give him back to you but it just never worked out, something always came up." Dee put his head on Remu's shoulder and dropped his arm. "Then you told me to just forget about it. I guess I didn't want to throw him out or anything so I put him on my bookshelf in my room. Sometimes, when I felt all alone, I would just hold him. I haven't done that in a while now that I think about it."

"You're such a softie." Remus put his chin on the side of Dee's head.

"Hey, you used to have a crush on me. Who're you to call me a softie?" Dee retorted.

"Mmm you're still a softie."

"Maybe." Dee said. He reached forward and pulled out the container with a white lid. "Care to indulge this softie by eating the cookies his mom baked for you after I told her everything besides us being Rangers?"

"Oh hell yes." Remus opened the lid and pulled out a cookie.


	14. Stripes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dee has a question for Patton and it can't wait, not even while fighting for their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Deceit(Janus) centric, demus shippers come get ya’lls juice !!, Patton being a relationship counsellor, a parody of my (asethetically) second favorite Power Rangers villain, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: sympathetic Remus and Janus, kind of spoilers I guess for the latest episode but it’s just Deceit’s name and if you didn’t know it was Janus yet then why ??, mild violence/fighting, pining but little, slight degrading talk, mention of death, cursing, sexual innuendos courtesy of Remus

Dee entered his second hour with a sigh of relief. Other than sixth it was the only hour he shared with Patton and he needed to talk to him. He was exhausted. Dee hadn't slept good since Friday night when he accidentally fell asleep in Remus's treehouse and had to sneak out at dawn the next morning. It was Tuesday and he probably slept four hours in total for the past three nights. Dee had a horrible day yesterday, between Kayley's annoying voice making him simmer in anger, and Roman and Logan leaving him at their lunch table to sit somewhere else, Dee was having a bad time.

He saw Patton enter the classroom and waved subtly at him to come over. Patton nodded and walked to Dee's desk, setting down his bag and sitting next to him. Next Dee saw Kayley as she walked through the door. She surveyed the room and saw Patton and Dee sitting next to each other. She huffed and strided over to an empty seat, clearly annoyed. The bell marking the beginning of class chimed and Dee hadn't spoken yet. Patton looked at him in wait. At the front of the class their teacher was beginning to explain the day's assignment but neither were paying attention. Dee was waiting for the right time to slip Patton a note explaining his predicament.

"What's that?" Some girl in front of Dee whispered to her friend.

Dee perked up and looked at the girls who were now looking at the window to their left.

"Oh my god!!" The friend shouted, standing in a panic and rushing to the window. Other people in the class stirred and turned to see what caused the disturbance.

Dee also stood and rushed to the window with Patton. A little ways away from the school a breach had opened. Nothing was coming through it yet but that did nothing to soothe the Rangers' nerves.

"Pat, lock the door." Dee whispered. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to the group chat cleverly titled 'not power rangers'. Patton moved to his left and swiftly locked the door that led outside, then looked up to Dee.

"Students please get away from the windows!" Their teacher called though no one listened.

It was deathly silent. Then the witchlings exploded through the breach. Swarms of them running at the school, directly to Patton and Dee's classroom.

Some of the students screamed and started running while others stood there in shock until their friends dragged them along. Patton and Dee let the group of students go and once everyone had vacated the classroom, locked the door behind them. Patton and Dee stood in the room alone.

"Dee," Patton whispered. "the security camera."

"Got it." Dee nodded and moved to the camera's blindspot. Summoning a dagger and throwing it, effectively breaking the device.

He made sure the dagger faded away and the two looked at each other, unsure. A loud thud smacked the window and Patton yelped, summoning his bow on instinct and shooting an arrow toward the sound. The arrow broke through the glass and embedded itself in a witchling. The monsters were swarming the classroom. It felt like something straight out of a horror film. Patton and Dee summoned their Ranger suits and stood closer.

"We need to get them away from the school." Patton stated.

"Oh if only these stupid suits could fly." Dee grunted.

"Maybe we can get onto the roof." Patton suggested.

"Wait!" Dee nodded. He stood on the nearest desk and moved the tile on the ceiling away. "This is the roof!" He pointed to the exposed area. "Do you have like, explosive arrows or something?"

"No, I haven't really found out how to summon those yet."

"Okay, that's fine. Here, use your grappling hook arrow and attatch it to the roof. Then we'll pull and hopefully some of the ceiling will come down!" Dee explained moving next to Patton again. "Then use another arrow and pull us up there."

"Dee, it's a ceiling, I don't think it'll just break like that." Patton stated.

"This is a public school in Florida Patton! I'm surprised the ceiling hasn't fallen in on us already!" 

"Let's hope this works." Patton shrugged firing the arrow. "We don't have a lot of time."

Dee and Patton grabbed the wire that was now firmly attatched to the ceiling and yanked on it as hard as they could. Sure enough a large patch in the ceiling fell to the floor and Patton fired yet another grappling hook. It landed on the roof and Patton wrapped his arm around Dee, pulling the two up to the roof. Dee and Patton looked below at the witchlings as they pounded on the windows and snarled grossly.

"Guess we're gonna have to jedi super jump this." Patton said.

"Well there's no time like the present." Dee shrugged.

The two raced as far from the edge as possible, then sprinted back, taking a running leap. Dee landed a few feet past Patton and recovered quickly. he summoned a dagger and threw it back. The two went back to back as the witchlings acknowledged them and started their way.

"Pink!" Dee began, quickly summoning and throwing his weapons as the witchlings circled and attacked.

"Yeah?" Patton asked.

"I need some help."

"I know, I'm trying but there's a lot of-"

"No, no, I need like feelings help."

"And you want to talk about it now?" Patton asked.

"I mean it's not ideal but we don't get to talk much."

"Why not just text me?"

"I don't know! I didn't think of it!" Dee said frustratedly. "Look, I just need help with something and you're the only person I trust."

"Really?!" Patton's tone seemed almost proud. "Well okay I'm here for you, but you usually trust Remus way more than me."

"I can't talk to Remus about this." Dee stated.

"Why not?" Patton stilled in realization. "It's about Remus!! Oh my god finally!! Tell me!!"

"Okay, okay, so, Friday night I went over to Remus's and we talked and stuff and it was super weird and deep and whatever." Dee said. "And, look, you probably don't know this but apparently Remus used to have a crush on me."

"What?!" Patton and Dee switched positions.

"Yeah I know. I didn't know either."

"No, no, no, hang on. Remus used to have a crush on you?"

"In like sophomore or junior year or something." Dee said.

"He used to. As in Remus in the past had a crush on you."

"Yes." Dee was getting confused now.

"As in Remus doesn't have a crush on you now. He just told you he used to."

"Yes Pat! I said that!"

"M'kay." Patton sounded unconvinced but Dee didn't know what of.

"He said he used to feel that way about me and it's been days and I can't stop thinking about it. I mean before guys have told me that they like or liked me and I always just kind of forgot about it. But this time, I don't know, I just keep hearing him say that he used to like me." Dee explained. 

"So are you mad that he had a crush on you?" Patton asked.

"No!" Dee argued.

"Are you mad that he stopped having a crush on you?"

"No, I don't think so." Dee said a little softer. "I might be now that I think about it. But I don't really care what that makes me feel, I just want to know why I feel!!"

"Well you're a human for one."

"Ugh that was such a Logan joke. I swear you two are like an old couple that spends so much time with each other you start to act like the other." Dee groaned.

"Uh thank you?" Patton didn't really know what to say, he just let another arrow fly and hit a witchling. "Dee, I want you to think about this. Remus told you he used to have a crush on you and since then you haven't stopped thinking about it. You said other boys have said the same thing before, but it never mattered as much as this one does. You and Remus are also closer to each other than any other people. And you're more mad about him not having a crush on you than ever having one."

"Yeah." Dee confirmed. "I know, but I don't know why I'm feeling like this, that's why I'm asking you."

"You're kidding right?" Patton asked. "It's never crossed your mind once. You've never thought about it!"

"Thought about what?!"

"Dating Remus!!" Patton exclaimed. "Come on Dee!!"

"What?!?" Dee actually stopped what he was doing and rounded on Patton.

"You can't tell me you've never thought about it." Dee could almost hear Patton's smirk.

"I mean, like, once or twice maybe as a passing thought two years ago but-" Dee stopped himself, summoning a dagger and shoving it into a witchling. "Oh my god."

"Hehe I knew it." Patton sang to himself.

"But no! No not really. Because Remus doesn't date." Dee shook his head.

"What?" Patton asked. "He's had boyfriends."

"Yeah but Remus-Remus doesn't, I don't know, I just know he doesn't date."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, dating is like fancy dinners and sweet stuff. And Remus doesn't do that." Dee stated. "He's not like that."

"Okay, stop right there." Patton cut him off. "Dating is not just that. Dating, Dee, is anything the people in love want it to be. Sure, Hollywood or whatever will tell you that's like a requirement, but dating is anything the couple wants it to be. Some people like walks in the park, some people like dinners and movies, and some people like uh. . . the things that Remus likes. Oh!! Stealing fast food and making out a lot!!"

"Yeah that's Remus." Dee whispered. "But Patton, it's not-"

"Dee, come on!" Patton practically begged. "Dating is anything the couple wants it to be! And you want to date Remus!!"

"But he doesn't want to date me!" Dee responded.

"I want to swear at you so badly right now Dee, but I'm running out of breath and if you've been so blind to it for this long, there's nothing I can do for you." Patton sighed.

"For so long? What are you talking about?" Dee asked.

"You're so smart, but so dumb. It's adorable." Patton laughed.

"Huh." Dee smiled. "Getting called adorable by you feels nice."

Patton giggled at that and the two went back to fighting.

"Pat I know you don't owe me anything, but can you do me a favor when this fight is over?"

"Sure anything." Patton replied.

"Great, could you call Logan adorable. I want to be there to see his face." Dee practically smirked.

"Wh-why?" Patton asked.

"Just 'cause." Dee shrugged.

"Hey how's it lookin' on your side? There doesn't seem to be too many monsters left."

"Yeah same over here."

"Where are the others!?" Patton suddenly grabbed Dee's arm. "It's been like half an hour Dee!!"

"Yeah it has." Dee nodded. "Where the hell are they?"

"Language."

"Seriously? All I said was hell."

"Hey you two!!!"

Dee and Patton turned to their right to see Roman, Logan, and Thomas heading over.

"Oh speak of the devil. Where the hell have you been!?!" Dee put a hand on his hip.

"About that!" Logan called. "There's another breach."

"What?!" Patton asked.

"There's two breaches. One in the front of the school and one here." Roman stated.

"Has that ever happened before?" Dee asked.

"No." Thomas stated. "I'm just as confused."

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Dee and the others turned quickly and watched as Remus ran toward them yelling. Dee followed Remus with his eyes as he ran past them, not even acknowledging the others.

"And it just got a lot more confusing." Dee said, dumbfounded.

"Get back here you weasel!!!"

Dee turned again just in time to see something sparking and heading straight for him. He grabbed Patton and dove out of the way. Dee watched as the bright blue whip snapped just where he had been. He looked over to see the person holding it. Remus. Or rather another Green Ranger. The voice had sounded far more feminine than Remus. Dee watched as the other Green Ranger started shifting, their suit fading and being replaced until a woman in a black full bodysuit and corset with knee high heels stood. She seemed more annoyed than angry like her tone suggested. Her hair was bright blue and as large as an amatuer Drag Queen's.

"Stay away from me you space porn reject!!" Remus shouted back.

She continued to run forward and slashed her whip at Remus again. Remus yelped and continued running.

"Okay bitch." Dee sneered. He summoned a dagger and threw it at her.

The blade just barely hit her forehead. She turned, her eyes deathly cold as she stared at Dee.

"Oh shit I did not think that through." Dee whispered.

"Guess that's what you do for the ones you love." Patton teased.

"Not the time Pat." Dee grunted.

"Hypocrite." Pat mumbled.

The two faced this woman.

"So uh, who are you?" Dee asked.

"Same question!" Roman yelled.

She turned to the group of three Rangers, then back to the two before grumbling something under her breath.

"My name is Astromania." She snarled. "It won't matter to you however."

"And why's that?" Roman asked.

"You'll be dead." She deadpanned.

"Damn." Logan's eyes widened.

"You, ma'am, are blunt." Roman pointed at her. "But I'm afraid you're wrong. You'll never beat us."

"I'm not here to talk to you." Astromania sighed. "No matter how much fun it would be playing with their favorite little toys, I have a mission." 

"Fa-favorite toys? Whose favorite toys?" Patton asked.

"Well, they'd never call you their toys but everyone knows that when you mess with the Power Rangers. You piss them off." She grinned.

"What people are you pissing off?" Logan asked. "You're not answering the question."

"You're all so dumb." She laughed. Dee really hated her laugh.

Roman said something back to her but Dee wasn't listening. Now he was staring at Remus who had snuck around and crept up behind Astromania, holding his mace out, ready to swing. Dee looked over to Logan and Thomas who were aggressively shaking their heads 'no' at Remus. Dee looked over to Patton who was frantically waving his arms to stop. Dee turned to Remus, who himself was confusedly looking between the others. Remus locked eyes with Dee, who shrugged and gave him two thumbs up. Remus nodded and swung the mace. Smacking Astromania in her ribs and to the ground. Remus put his hands up in triumph.

"Green!!" Logan, Thomas, Roman, and Patton yelled.

"What?! She smacked me with a stinging kink whip!!" Remus exclaimed. "I have a concussion in case you forgot!"

"You bitch!!" Astromania growled.

"Thank you!" Remus gestured to her.

Astromania threw her whip at Remus. It wrapped around his ankle and she yanked on it, pulling him to the ground with a yelp.

"That's enough." Patton summoned his bow and fired an arrow at her.

She pulled her whip back and rolled away from the arrow. Standing quickly and surveying the boys.

"Get him," Patton whispered to Dee. "we'll handle her, just get him out of here."

"Okay." Dee nodded.

Logan, Thomas, Roman, and Patton started walking forward to Astromania, summoning their weapons. Dee rushed in and grabbed Remus's arm, pulling it over his shoulder and helping him out of there.

"You don't have to do this, I can walk."

"You said so yourself, you have a concussion." Dee scoffed. "Don't fight unless you have to. Got it?"

"You don't tell me what to do." Remus mumbled.

"You're really gonna test me right me?"

"Oh what are you gonna do? Punish me?" Remus asked mockingly.

"If you keep being a dumbass."

"Well that's just more reason to be dumbass." Remus giggled.

"Stay here." Dee set Remus down. "Move and I'll personally make sure you don't leave your bed for a week."

"Mmm you're not a top. You're too short." 

"First of all, that's not what I meant and you know it. Second of all, I'm not short, you're freakishly tall." Dee sighed. "Just stay here and don't get another concussion."

"M'kay." Remus pouted.

Dee ran back to the others and summoned his daggers. He saw as Astromania had her whip wrapped around Logan's lance. She smiled at him before shifting her form to look like the Black Ranger. Then yanked her whip back towards herself and pulled the lance with her. However, Logan kept his grip and allowed her to pull him to her, where he punched her in the jaw. She doubled back, her whip letting go of the lance. She shifted from Black Ranger to Yellow. Then when she didn't get what she wanted to Red. Logan reeled and attacked her with his lance.

The others took care of the surrounding witchlings while Logan handled her. Dee ran over to Thomas and started helping him double team a large group of witchlings. The monsters circled up and Dee slashed at them with his blades.

"Ooo there he is." Dee heard Astromania cackle. He looked over and saw her, she looked like the Pink Ranger.

Logan attacked again, swiftly. She countered and flung him to the ground. Logan shouted something from the ground that Dee didn't hear. Patton however, turned shooting an arrow right away. Astromania grabbed the arrow midair just before it hit her face. She smiled evily and let out a wicked laugh.

"You stupid boys. Oh I can't wait to tell them how easy it was to bring you down." She cackled.

Logan at that moment thrusted his lance up through her stomach. She dropped her disguise and fell to her knees in front of Logan, her face in shock. Dee thought he saw just a glimmer of pride in her eyes.

"Still think it was easy?" Logan grunted.

"Oh they're gonna love this." She coughed. "They're gonna love seeing me lose to you. Their Mom is gonna go batshit crazy but they're gonna smile. I love making them smile."

"Who!?!" Logan exclaimed.

She didn't say anything. Only laughed as she faded away. The blue dust floating off. Logan stepped away and took a little bit to compose himself before helping the others finish the rest of the witchlings. Dee stabbed one in its neck and stomach and watched it disintegrate. He looked around, realizing that was the last of the monsters.

"You think school is cancelled?" Remus asked from a ways away. The Rangers started making their way towards him.

"If it's not, no one is gonna show up." Thomas stated.

"We should go back to your place." Logan said. "We need to talk."

"Agreed." Thomas nodded.

Dee helped Remus up again and the Rangers began their walk. When they were able to, all of them let their Ranger suits drop and went to their cars. Dee was having a hard time focusing in front of the wheel. Luckily the drive wasn't very long to Thomas's. When they arrived Emile opened the door and hurried them in. They ran to the basement and sat down. Dee felt like he was in a daze as he sat down on the big pink inflatable chair. The pinball machine off to the side was the only sound going. Dee watched as the others filled in. Remus walked over and sat on the floor, as close to Dee as he could be without touching him.

Remus was usually a touchy feely type of person and he knew Dee didn't mind. It gave Dee a feeling in the back of his throat. He thought about it for a second and realized the feeling was sadness. Dee didn't like that. He looked at Remus, not sure exactly what he was looking for. Maybe some form of reassurance. All he knew was that Remus at one point sensed the staring and looked up to Dee. Remus gave him a silly grin before turning back forward and leaning against Dee's leg. Dee sighed, relaxed.

"What people were she talking about?" Roman asked the group. "I mean she kept saying 'they'll be happy' or 'they'll be pissed'. Who are these people?"

"I don't know." Thomas stated. "Four years ago Virglius started attacking and he'd been the only general. Until the Dragon Witch had to step in. Now it seems we're back to the usuals."

It was quiet again. 

"Do you think the 'they' she was talking about is Virgilius?" Emile asked quietly. "Maybe Virgilius isn't a man. Maybe they're non-binary."

"That makes sense." Logan said. "She called us 'their favorite little toys'. Thomas has been fighting Virgilius for years, there's something significant about that. Not to mention Dee and Remus. You two reached out to him. You tried to get him on our side, I don't think that's ever happened before. Right Thomas?"

"Yeah. I would remember if any of us tried something like that." Thomas stated.

"Virgilius and Roman also exchanged a lot of banter-"

"Flirting Logan. It's called flirting." Remus smiled.

"It was not flirting." Roman scoffed.

"Whatever it was, you had to have made an impression."

"Virgilius grew attatched to us." Patton said. "And apparently they get mad when someone attacks us."

"Well why did the Dragon Witch call Virgilius her son?" Roman asked.

"Maybe they prefer son." Dee suggested.

"Or, I mean, you heard what she said to Logan. What she called Logan when she had us in that bubble." Patton said angrily. "There's no way that she would respect Virgilius's pronouns."

"But Astromania does? What sense does that make?" Dee asked.

"She said that she loves to make them smile." Logan said. "Is it possible that Astromania and Virgilius have some kind of connection?"

"What did she sound like when she said that?" Patton asked. "Maybe they were, like, dating."

"No, no, no." Logan shook his head. "There was definitely no romantic subtext in her tone. The way she said it was almost, maternal."

"God this is so weird." Remus said.

"So, Virgilius is possibly non-binary and could go by they/them pronouns." Patton started to try and summarise. "Their attatched to us to the point where other generals know that fighting us makes them mad. And they have some kind of connection to Astromania."

"There's something else." Logan said. "Astromania said 'their mom is gonna go batshit crazy'. How many villains have we fought that have referred to the Dragon Witch as their mom?"

"Virgilius is the only one." Roman stated. Thomas affirmed it.

"Not only that," Logan continued. "Thomas, you've hit Virgilius with your axe before. You saw him bleed right?" 

"Y-yeah his blood is purple." Thomas said.

"Dee, you hit Astromania forehead with your dagger. Even if it didn't kill her, it still struck her, but she didn't bleed." Logan said.

"Hey yeah!" Remus sat up farther. "When Dee and I fought that Lord uhh Something, we hit him a lot. He didn't bleed."

"No he just faded away. Like the-the witchlings." Logan snapped his fingers. "All the witchlings! They look exactly alike!"

"They do." Thomas nodded. "We always figured they were some weird aliens."

"Maybe they're clones." Logan said. "Have the generals always faded?"

"Yeah. In fact," Thomas looked at Logan. "there were these two generals. We could never figure out what was up with them. Joan thought maybe they were twins, but there was something off about them. Uh, the first one showed up the day Terrence became a Ranger! I wasn't a Ranger yet, but I saw the fight. The general's name was Lord Drokkan."

"Another Lord?" Dee scoffed.

"Yeah. He-he was so annoying. Then, years later, there was another general he called himself Lord Drokkan. He even said that he'd fought us before. It just didn't make sense though. The first Lork Drokkan was white and green. Then the second time we fought him, he was red and gold. It was the same costume just different colors. Nothing like this had ever happened before and it never happened again. He kept saying he remembered fighting us, and that he wouldn't lose again." Thomas stated. "Joan said the second one was probably twin who was trying to mess with us, but we were never sure."

"It makes sense if they're cloned." Roman went on. "But they keep their memories?" 

"This is something straight out of sifi." Patton said.

"So Virgilius isn't a clone then?" Dee looked to Logan.

"Well, we haven't seen them in a while. It's possible that they've already been cloned."

"Ohh I don't want to think about that." Patton leaned his head back, Emile patted his hair.

It went quiet again.

Dee's phone started vibrating. He pulled it out of his pocket. Flannel Mom calling

Dee looked to the others before answering and getting up to go to the corner of the room.

"Hey mom." He said into the phone.

"You didn't call me!" She yelled. Dee flinched and pulled the phone away.

"Sorry Mom."

"You know to call me any time your school gets attacked." She told him.

"Yeah, yeah." Dee said. "Look, mom, I'm really sorry. I am. I wanted to call you but-"

"Hang on Janus." She stopped him.

Dee waited.

"Your mom wants to know if you've eaten lunch."

"No I haven't." Dee responded.

"Okay." His mom was quit again. "Get home as soon as you can and pick up some sushi from that place on Holland street okay. The usual for me . . . some onigiri for your mom and uh whatever you want."

"Okay I will." Dee smiled.

"Oh! And she wants some raspberries." His mom said quickly. "and vanilla. Not the stalks, the bottles. Sorry the jars, she likes the jars they're cuter. Not the bottles."

"I got it." He laughed a little.

"She really likes the jars." His mom sighed. "Now get home soon okay. Tell your friends we say 'hi' while you're at it. Why haven't they been over yet? You talk about them all the time."

"I-I know mom I'll uh, think of something."

"Honey, I know you don't mean it, but your mom is starting to think that you don't want them over because-"

"No! No that's not at all what's going on! I would never be afraid for her to meet them or anything like that!" Dee stopped her. "I love her. There just hasn't been a good time. I swear the second I can I'll invite them over Mom."

"Okay." She replied. "I love you."

"Love you too."

"Get. Home." She told him pointedly and hung up.

Dee smiled and put his phone back in his pocket.

"Guys, I gotta get home." Dee stated.

"Okay." Thomas nodded.

"If you think of anything else text me." Dee told them.

"We will." Roman nodded.

The others said their goodbyes and Dee went upstairs. He was about to open the front door when he heard footsteps following him and turned around to see Remus poking his head around the corner.

"Hey, before you leave I wanna give you something." Remus said.

"What?" Dee asked.

"Just c'mere." Remus gave him a toothy smile.

Remus lead him outside and opened Roman's car trunk. He sifted around the junk in it before pulling out a gift bag with santa on it.

"You know I'm Jewish right?" Dee smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I just couldn't find anything else in our basement." Remus handed it to him. "Here."

Dee took the bag and looked inside. No tissue paper. He pulled out the only object inside. A beanie. A black beanie with two yellow stripes close to the bottom. He chuckled and looked at Remus. The taller boy's face was so proud. Dee rolled his eyes and put it on. The fabric was reletively soft, but secure.

"A beanie?" Dee asked.

"I don't know. I just wanted you to have it."

"You stole it didn't you?"

"Ohh yeah." He smiled. "Did you know Calvin Klein made beanies? Whatever. I like to say if it's chain it's free reign."

"Nice." Dee felt himself giggle. Yes, he actually giggled. It was strange, but natural.

"Anyway I'm gonna-" Remus moved to go back inside.

"Wait!" Dee stopped him. "Um, I was talking to Patton earlier."

"Okay." Remus nodded.

"We-we uh um," Dee felt his throat dry up. "We talked and-and, shit! I'm really not good at this!"

Dee felt his ears grow hot and he pulled the beanie down over them.

"I mean Dee the last time I talked to Patton it literally made me stop the fake drug deals I'd been making for three years. I'm sure-"

Dee didn't really know what compelled him to kiss Remus, but something did. He pushed forward and kissed Remus on the lips. Well, not completely, it was more like half on Remus's lips and half on his cheek. He didn't really care though. All Dee felt was how nice it was to actually kiss him. His moustache was a little weird, none of Dee's previous boyfriends had one, but Dee didn't care. He just felt that flutter in his stomach and the dizziness in his head. Sadly, Dee felt like he couldn't breathe and pulled away so he could will some oxygen into his lungs.

"Can-uh," Dee stuttered out, he didn't like how high his voice was. "can we talk later? I-I really need to get home."

"Yeah cool cool cool cool cool cool yeah." Remus nodded, his eyes were glazed and he was smiling like crazy. Dee decided he really liked that face, he wanted to see it more.

"I'll text you when I get home okay?"

"Mhm yeah cool." Remus nodded.

Dee nodded back and turned away, sprinting to his car. Knowing if he stayed a second longer he wouldn't be home by dinner. He got in his car and quickly started driving away, hoping his shock wouldn't be over until he got to the store. Dee drove to the other side of town, stopping a few blocks away from the outskirts. Dee pulled to the side of the road and park outside the shop he sat in his car. He looked at himself in the rear-view mirror. He quickly pulled out a makeup wipe from the glove compartment and started wiping at his face. When the makeup was off Dee looked at himself yet again. His cheeks were bright pink and his eyes were wide. He smiled all silly-like and practically skipped up to the store.

"Janus!" The sweet woman, Mrs. Turnabell-Saito, behind the counter greeted. "If I didn't know any better I'd say someone's head over heels."

"Someone steal Janus's heart?" Her daughter teased as she walked past Dee. "Or perhaps," She grabbed the hat, pulling it inside out and showing the anti-theft device still attatched. "steal their way into his heart?"

"Ha ha Kiera." Dee snatched the hat back. "Shut up."

"Who's the lucky fella?" Mrs. Turnabell-Saito asked, already preparing the usual sushi order.

"Pff, lucky!?" Kiera patted Dee's shoulder. "Yeah right."

"I said shut up." Dee replied, smiling.


	15. Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton doesn't know what to do with his emotions and it ends up blowing up in his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Patton centric, a new general, high school party, feelings, realizations, metaphors
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: sympathetic Remus and Janus, mild swearing, underage drinking, violence, space gun violence, angst, tears, feelings, mentions of one-sided relationships, yelling, drunkeness, explosions

Patton got to school on Friday a little more than excited. The night before he had gotten an invite from Nora and Lauren Montgomery. Logan's sisters asked him to go over to their house for a halloween party and Patton couldn't wait. He had to get through one last school day then Patton would wake up Saturday morning, hopefully finish editing a long over due YouTube video, then change into his costume and head over. Patton hadn't gone to a high school party since sophomore year and was excited.

Patton closed his locker and began shoving his books into his bag. As Patton walked through the halls he caught sight of the usual groups. Freshmen either staying out of the way or being far too over confident. Sophomores walking around the loop and chatting. Kayley and her group of popular white people plus Dee. And Teachers holding their mugs that were likely not filled with coffee as they claimed.

As Patton approached the afformentioned group of white people plus Dee, he saw Remus approach Dee and slip something into his back pocket, then turn around and walk away like nothing happened. Patton stopped, waiting to see what Dee did. The black beanie wearing teen-Patton really liked his new beanie-pulled the note out of his pocket and quickly read it. Then said something to the group about needing to meet with a teacher before walking away.

Patton, ever the detective, followed him as sneakily as possible. Dee rounded a corner, trying to make himself unnoticable as he slipped into a room that wouldn't be used until second hour. What are you two up to? Patton asked himself. He looked around the corner and saw the two in question, Dee leaning against the wall and Remus standing before him.

"Dee you're really not going?" Remus asked.

"Remus, you know she wouldn't let me." Dee said, not making eye contact.

"Yeah I know it's just-" Remus stopped himself, taking a breath and not continuing.

"Hey whoa." Dee looked up at him in concern. "What are you thinking? You're not telling me something, what is it?"

"Nothing's-"

"Remus," Dee poked Remus in the cheek. "c'mon, you and I both know your mom is batshit crazy! You've gotta stop letting her get in your head. Now tell me what you're thinking."

"We haven't gone on a real date." Remus blurted. "And I'm not saying this would be that, but we don't get to spend time together where we can be like this." Remus grabbed Dee's hand.

Patton has to physically stop himself from squealing.

"I know." Dee said sadly. "How about I just tell Kayley that I'm sick and can't go to her party? Then I get out of going to her thing and can go to Logan's."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Dee shrugged. "I'd rather go to Logan's with you."

"And you're okay with telling them?" Remus asked.

"They're all a bunch of saints, if we ask them not to talk about it, they won't." Dee said, leaning into Remus for a hug.

"You're always right my Bumblebee. How did I get someone so smart like you?"

"Bumblebee? Ha, I like that one."

"Really? I thought it was lame compared to McSe-"

"Don't." Dee pulled away.

"Boooo." Remus deflated.

Patton walked away as the two started laughing. He smiled as he thought about the two of them. Patton felt a little guilty that he'd listened in, but he'd just tell Dee what he heard in second hour and support him. Patton stepped into his first hour. Happy for a new day.

It wasn't until lunch when that happy feeling went away. Patton has been enjoying a nice talk with Naomi, Roman, and Logan, when Remus burst into the library looking frantic. He gave some excuse about needing the three boys in the office for something and ran off, expecting them to follow. Patton told Naomi it was probably some scheduling conflict and followed the others.

When they all arrived at Thomas's office he explained the breach across town in a used car lot and said they had to get there fast. The Rangers got in their respective cars and left swiftly. When they arrived Patton saw the breach, the hole in the sky, monsters dropping out of it in succession. They all were gathered in rows like a military line up. It was unnerving to see the seething, drooling monsters all in rows, organized. Patton felt a shiver go up his spine as the car apporached. Patton stopped it and turned the engine off, then summoned up his armor and got out, quickly followed by Logan.

The team stood together, unsure as to why the monsters weren't currently attacking them. They just stood there, baring their teeth. Then Patton heard it, heels clacking against the concrete. The monsters in front of them started parting, letting the person between them walk up to the Rangers.

The last row parted and this new general stepped out. Patton had to do a double take at how cartoony she was. Bubblegum pink skin and yellow polka-dotted heeled boots that connected up to a matching corset. Her skirt was made of large armored hearts around her waist and her top was a black crop that went down to her wrists and up to her nose with a cut out for her mouth. Then there was her helmet. It was just a large pink heart that sat on her head and framed her face with random spikes sticking out of it. She smiled at the Rangers.

"Hello dears!" She waved. "You like my personal little army? They're new and improved." She reached out and stroked the arm of the closest witchling.

"Who are you?" Roman asked, standing proudly.

"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself." She took a step forward. "You can call me Poisandana."

"Well the name's better than that red guy." Remus grumbled. "But the big thing on your head? Trash."

"Your humor annoys me." She said plainly. "Next."

"Next?" Dee asked.

"Yeah, next. Who's gonna say something next? Come on! I don't want this to be boring! Where's the whitty banter? The sly jabs? The intrigue? The romance!?" She pointed at Patton. "I've heard you in particular are part of some romantical sub-plot. I'm very interested in hearing all about it."

Patton went to speak but she already had moved her attention elsewhere.

"Then again, you two have a little something?" She pointed between Dee and Remus.

"We-"

"Oh!" She clapped her hands together. "Now I remember! You're the one with a tragic star-crossed lovers story. Just heart wrenching." She addressed Roman.

"I am n-"

"Oh and of course they just did not stop telling me about how funny it is that Blue here is so head-over-heels." She smiled widely again and took a pause. "Though, they didn't really have a choice to tell me." Poisandana had almost a pouty face. "They don't get many choices anymore thanks to you."

"Are you talking about Virgilius?" Logan asked.

"They actually felt so bad about telling me. I even think I saw them cry a little. I don't like watching people cry." Poisandana quickly switched to a condescending smile. "They told me I shouldn't do it. That I didn't have to. That I could, join you, run off into the galaxy, they even said I could stop fighting. I guess they don't know me too well. I like the fight."

"Who are you talking about?" Logan asked again.

"Is it Virgilius!?" Remus asked.

"They told me that if I talked to you, to say they were sorry." That shut the Rangers up. "Oh, did that touch a nerve? I can tell you three in particular are tense." She looked between Dee, Remus, and Patton. "Oh, they just kept telling me over and over, 'Tell them I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' I'll be honest, I thought it was pathetic."

"Who are you talking about?!" Dee shouted.

"Actually, I think I'm done talking." She snarled.

Poisandana flicked out her left hand and in it appeared a weapon. A long black staff and at the end a pink love heart-like blade. Patton was a little shocked and backed up slightly because of it. 

"Oh boy." Remus said.

Just as he had gotten that out Poisandana pointed her staff at him and smirked. Then a pink light surged out of her staff and hit Remus square in the chest knocking him on his back.

"Re-" Dee stopped himself, running over to Remus. "Green oh my god!!"

Poisandana cackled as she pulled back.

"What did you do to him?!" Dee yelled angrily. Remus stirred and coughed.

"Oh god are you okay?" Dee asked, pulling Remus's head into his lap.

"I can't catch a damned break can I?" Remus said. "Pink, it's your turn to deal with this bitch!"

"What?" Patton looked down at Remus then the others.

"That's actually a good idea." Logan said. "You won't get too close to her with your bow, therefore you're better to face her, at least until we come up with something."

"Have fun!" Remus said from the ground.

"Oh gosh, okay." Patton readied himself, summoning his bow. "I can do this."

"I believe in you Pink!" Remus said, still laying on the ground.

"Get up you two." Roman said. "Let's make sure Patton's got cover."

"Yep." Remus sat fully up while Dee stood, reaching out a hand for Remus to take.

"Come on." Dee grunted, hoisting his-Patton assumed now boyfriend-off the ground.

"Oh what a bitch." Remus snarled under his breath.

The Rangers stood back in their line, waiting for something to happen. Poisandana didn't hesitate. She snapped her fingers and the little army of monsters started charging.

The witchlings lashed out, running around Poisandana toward the Rangers. Patton felt as the dread travelled down his spine. He wasn't enthusiastic in anyway for this battle. Patton drew back an arrow on his bow and took a breath, firing. The arrow whizzed past her face, dangerously close. Poisandana smiled devilishly at Patton pointing her own weapon at him. Patton ran to his left. He could feel the blasts of her space gun and hear the fighting behind him. Once again he knocked an arrow and fired at her. Poisandana cackled unsettlingly and Patton continued running, knowing that just ahead there was a car that he could use as cover.

Patton reached it and crouched behind the car taking a few deep breaths before pulling out an arrow yet again and firing. The monsters around Poisandana were acting as a bit of cover for her and Patton knew he had to get to higher ground. He looked around for any type of platform and spotted a broken down building. It didn't look too safe but hopefully it could support Patton long enough.

"She wasn't kidding about these witchlings being all new and improved!!" Patton heard Roman yell.

Patton looked over to the others and watched as the monsters would get struck down by one of the Rangers, only for another one to meld its body with the other, growing larger and larger, teeth and claws getting sharper and sharper.

Patton had to get to the platform but he needed a distraction. Poisandana's space gun was firing at Patton at a constant rate, he could feel the car moving and hear parts of it blowing off. Patton couldn't exactly call out to the others for a distraction, that was too obvious. He needed to do something. Patton turned again to the others and saw that most of the witchlings had actually medled to each other and were a large blob of monster swiping at the Rangers. Patton saw as it stomped and roared, attempting to crush his friends. Patton was growing angry. Extremely angry. He had to deal with this pink haired crazy lady while his friends were put in harms way and there wasn't much he could do. He was angry that he was even there. He just felt the anger pool in his chest and boil up his throat.

Patton didn't realize where he was directing all of his anger, until he felt a weight in his hand and looked, the white sparkling light in his palm meant he was subconsiously summoning an arrow. Quickly getting over his shock, Patton surged all of his anger and hostility toward the weapon, not knowing what would come of it. When the arrow appeared Patton didn't know what to make of it. It appeared just like the others, but the shaft was glowing brighter than a glowstick under a black light. Patton bent down further and knocked the arrow, pointing it up at the blob of a monster's face.

He let the arrow fly, the second it left the bow becoming invisible. Patton waited, not knowing exactly what would happen. He could hear a faint whistling as it went and he watched intently, knowing he couldn't have missed the monster.

Then there was an explosion. Patton watched as the beast's face became covered in a plume of pink smoke, he heard as it fell apart and individual monsters fell to the ground, no longer combined. The noise continued to reverberate across the lot, and luckily got the attention of Poisandana who didn't fire a single shot as Patton ran to the building. He used a grappling hook arrow to get to the top and watched as all of the others regained their wits and continued with the fight.

Poisandana growled and dramatically pointed her laser gun at the car Patton had just ran from. She shot at it rapidly eventally sending the car flying, at which point she saw Patton had abandoned that hiding spot. She howled in anger and looked around searching for Patton. Patton took that moment of confusion for her to summon another arrow and begin a barrage. He let arrow after arrow loose from his bow at her and watched as she ducked slightly for cover. Patton saw as Poisandana brought out her other hand and pulled a second gun, no longer giving herself cover, instead she started firing at the arrows, blowing the ones that would have hit her to dust. One of her lasers blew past the arrows and hit Patton in his shoulder. He fell back and groaned a little in pain. He tried his best to shake off the pain and got back on his knees, waiting to see what she did next. Poisandana stood, chin in the air, and made eye contact with Patton.

"I didn't know you had that explosion in ya Pinkey!" She called. "I never thought you would be the destructive one!"

Patton didn't respond.

"Oh are you not gonna talk to me?!" She asked condescendingly. "Ugh, this is so much like humans. Petty. Annoying. Emotional."

Patton crouched farther down, keeping eye contact with her.

"You know, you're very easy to read!" She yelled. "I feel like I know you so well."

"Is that so?" Patton asked, less of a question however, more of a way to keep her talking and her attention on him. Keep her from turning around and seeing Logan who was readying himself to attack her.

"Oh it is!" She holstered one of her guns and flicked her wrist. The other Rangers were giving Logan cover as he started toward her, quietly but intently. "You see Pink!"

Patton didn't like the way she hissed his color.

"You put yourself in harms way so easily!" She said. "All to protect those around you! And for what?! No one cares about the sacrifices you make! No one notices all the little things you do for those around you! Yet, you have never gotten so angry, like you did just now!! Because even when these human scum don't appreciate you, you can't help but care more for their issues than your own!!!"

Patton sucked in a breath, knowing to just block everything she was saying from his mind.

"How did you get all of that from a little fight?" Patton asked.

"Oh, I didn't get that from this fight." She laughed. "I got all of this from your little friend while their life was being sucked out of them!"

Patton stiffened. He looked as the other Rangers all stopped, stunned. The air around seemed to go still.

"W-what?" Patton asked, he could feel the blood draining from his face.

"And there he is!! There is our pink!" She pointed her gun at Patton. "You don't even know them! You were fighting them only weeks ago! And yet, you can't help but care. It's niave and childish! No, you are naive and childish!! You think they really care about you?! You think your friends care?! You would put yourself in danger for people that feel nothing for you!!!"

"You're wrong!" Patton yelled. "You-you're wrong!"

"About what darling? I've made a lot of points today." Her aim focused on Patton more.

"It's not naive to care!" Patton yelled. "It's not childish! It's empathy! It's okay to care."

"And where does care get you?" Suddenly, just as Logan had reached her, Poisandana whipped her space gun around and blasted it at Logan's hand causing him to drop his lance. She used his hurt state to wrap her hand around his neck and pull him off the ground as he struggled.

"Blue!!!" Patton screamedstanding up and reaching over the side of the building.

He stood exposed long enough for Poisandana to fire her laser at him hitting Patton in the stomach and causing him to fly back. Patton recoiled into himself, clutching his stomach. He started to push himself up, eyes ablaze with rage. He heard a thud on the ground and it rang in his ears, Patton knew it was Poisandana throwing Logan to the ground. He shoved himself off the ground and to his knees breathing hard. He stuck his hand out, once again focusing his rage, his frustration, into his palm. Patton watched with intensity as white and pink sparks fired from his gloved hand.

He heard from down below as Poisandana started firing her lasers. Then he heard Logan scream in pain. Patton's whole body was shaking in anger at this point. The moment the glowing pink arrow appeared in his hand he stood and pulled it back on his bow. On the ground Poisandana was firing into a cloud of dust that Patton assumed Logan was in.

"Get the hell away from him!!!" Patton yelled.

Her attention successfully on him, Logan was able to scramble away. Patton narrowed his eyes and fired. Once again the arrow was invisible the second it left his hand. He watched, bow in hand, waiting. The whistling of the arrow growing fainter in his ears.

Then there was a boom. It echoed far more aggressively than the arrow before and a far larger cloud of pink smoke completely covered Poisandana and a good ten foot circle around her. Then Patton felt the air and debris from the blastfly around. He didn't pull his eyes away. He felt hot tears prick at the sides of his eyes. As the pink smoke dispersed around the lot blowing out in waves until it was mainly a haze covering the ground. Patton saw as the pink dust that once was Poisandana settled on the ground.

Finally, he ripped his eyes away and towards his friends. All of them were staring at him, he couldn't see thier faces, but he knew their posture, he saw the tensity in their shoulders, the stillness of their heads, the shaking in their hands. Patton didn't like it. He offhandedly summoned a grappling hook arrow and attatched it to the side of the building, then slowly hopped the ledge and slowly fell to the ground, allowing the grappling hook to lower him. When his feet hit the pavement Patton pulled back on the grappling hook and summoned another, normal arrow. He aimed and fired quickly at the last remaining monster that had been too startled by the dissapearance of Poisandana to attack. The witchling, like its former general, became dust on the ground.

Patton unsummoned his bow and walked to his car, not looking any of the others in the eye. He strode to the front seat and fell against it, closing the door next to him in a huff.

"Pink Ranger deactivate." He said quietly, afraid of what would happen if he spoke any louder than a whisper.

Patton sank down in the seat, putting his head in his hands, trying to keep the burning, salty tears from spilling over. Why are you crying? It won't help. Stop crying you idiot! He berated himself. This isn't helping anything!

Patton didn't know how long he hand been sitting in silence. He was startled however, when he heard knocking from the passenger window. He looked up, shaken, and saw Logan and Roman at the window.

Patton unlocked the car and motioned for them to get in. Logan sat beside Patton and Roman got in the back. The three were quiet for a beat.

"Pat," Roman started. "are-"

"I'm fine." Patton stopped him firmly.

"It's okay to not be fine Patton." Logan whispered. "We don't expect you to be fine after what just happened."

"Well I am fine, so expectations defied." Patton said, looking away. "Sorry. I just-I never want to feel like that again."

"Feel like what?" Roman asked.

"Angry." Patton replied, his voice becoming choked up. "I was just so angry. I don't want to feel that angry. It was so bad feeling so angry. It was awful and scary and-I just don't want to feel like that ever again."

"What made it scary?" Logan asked, his voice was so even Patton envied him for it.

"You saw what I did." Patton said quietly. "You saw that-that explosion. I did that, I-I made that happen. I was so angry and it made me do that." He lamented.

"Pat, I'm sure-"

"Roman you didn't see my face. You-you didn't see how angry I was. How easy it was to-to summon that." Patton hid his face in shame. "I've been trying for weeks to summon an exploding arrow. I'd seen my cenn do it all the time. They made it look so easy! I thought I could just summon one up." 

He was quiet for a beat again, trying to get his voice even again.

"But when I did. It was because I was so angry. I was just so, so mad and then I summoned it and it did so much damage! Talyn's exploding arrows were, they were just less destructive." Patton rubbed at his forearms. "But mine . . . mine were dangerous. They felt bad. It's not supposed to feel bad. Nothing should feel that bad."

When Patton lifted his eyes to the other two he was shocked. He had expected pity, anger, possibly even fear. But when he looked into Roman's eyes he saw nothing but a smile of reassurance. A look of support. Then there was Logan, his eyes, his small smile, his freckles shone through his pinkened cheeks, and the slight tilt of his head. All of it told Patton that Logan was thinking one thing about Patton: admiration. Patton felt a little stab at his heart as he looked at Logan's expression. The feeling surged through his chest like vines spreading over a long forgotten trellis in the woods. Patton imagined little flowers blooming off the vines, up to his brain making it go all fuzzy. When Patton got his witts about him he was surprised to find his body hadn't actually burst into winding vines.

This is Roman's doing. Patton thought, darting his eyes away from Logan and back again. This has to be Roman hijacking my brain, making me think all poetically. Patton returned the two's smiles, though it felt a little forced.

"Patton," Logan began earnestly. "Poisandana was somewhat correct. She called you emotional, and while she tried to use that against you by telling you your friends take advantage of your care, it's quite the opposite. Your friends cherish your empathy and your unconditional support, and the fact that you offer both of these things is a large part of who you naturally are. You're an emotion based, caring, and loving individual. I believe your ability as a Ranger is tied to that emotion. When you feel anger, you take it out with explosive arrows. When you need to get out of a situation, you summon a grappling hook. I don't see in anyway how this is a disadvantage. Your emotions are strong, and they will make you a stronger Power Ranger."

Patton actually wanted to cry, he sniffled and wiped at his face, trying to stop the tears before they truly fell.

"Patton-" Roman leaned forward attempting to offer more support.

Logan placed a hand on Patton's forearm hoping to calm. He gently ran his thumb up and down, the feeling gave Patton's mind a little break from the guilt.

"I need to call my therapist." Patton sobbed a little.

. . .

Patton could hear the music half way up the street. He approached the Montgomery house, snaking his way through cars all the way up to the door. The windows in front of the house had curtains pulled in front of them, though the flashing multi-color lights weren't exactly blocked out. He chuckled as he opened the door. Inside Patton recognized the party-goers to be mostly juniors, likely Lauren's friends. The kitchen to his left was filled with snacks and drinks, and the music playing was something Patton didn't recognize. He usually listened to Billy Joel, The Beatles, or Fleetwood Mac. The juniors were talking, dancing, and smiling ear to ear. Patton was a little surprised to smell the alcohol, but it wasn't as aggressive as it usually was at other parties.

"Patton!!"

Patton turned around to Remus who bounded up to him, a wild smile and even wilder looking Dee in tow.

"Heya you two!" Patton greeted.

"We're dating!" Remus siad, a little louder than he needed to considering how close the three were standing.

"Whaaaaaat?" Patton tried his best to appear extremely surprised.

"You knew didn't you?" Remus yelled again.

"A little." Patton nodded. "No matter what I'm so happy for you two! You're just adorable together!!"

Remus laughed and leaned over to Dee, wrapping his arm around Dee's waist and bringing him close. Dee wrapped his own arms around Remus' neck and laughed with him. Patton sighed, happy to see his friends so happy.

"We're gonna steal from so many big coorperations." Remus said smugly.

"And push so many nazis down stairs." Dee said in the same tone.

The two continued on with their slightly concerning-well, Patton could only assume it was flirting. When Patton started getting a little uncomfortable he looked around for someone he recognized. Finally, at the stairs, Patton thought he caught sight of Logan's hair.

"So, uh, I'm gonna go talk to Logan, but you two have fun." He cheered a little. The two didn't really acknowledge him, but Patton didn't mind. "Logan!" He called.

The hair he recognized flipped around to the sound of Patton's voice and started making his way through the crowd. Patton saw Logan's face and speed walked forward to see him.

"Patton." Logan said, clearly relieved.

"This is some halloween party Lo!" Patton said to him.

"I know, it's a lot." Logan shook his head. "I told Lauren to keep it between closer friends, but, apparently that includes half the junior class."

Patton laughed.

"How are you doing?" Logan asked. "Considering how events played out yesterday it would be alright if-"

"I'm not doing the best." Patton said. "I won't lie, I've certainly been better. But, uh, I just really need a distraction."

"I'm happy to have helped provide that for you." Logan smiled. "Would you prefer we talk somewhere other than here?"

"Yeah that sounds great!" Patton nodded enthusiastically.

"Roman is just over there, he was going to meet me upstairs once he got a plateful of cookies."

"Awesome!"

The two began making thier way upstairs. While walking, Patton looked at the wall covered in school pictures, he looked at each expression, not sure what for, just to look. Logan reached his room and opened the door for Patton who stepped in eagerly. He examined the room, spying the shelf that was completely covered in puzzles ranging from actual puzzles to the brain teaser like objects that you fit together. There were even three seperate rubix cubes, each unsolved, and each looking heavily messed with. Patton wanted to grab them down and solve them.

He and Logan sat on Logan's bed, beginning to chat about nothing in particular. When Roman joined them the three started talking about the up coming school musical. Auditions had been held the first week of school, and Roman, being the amazing singer he is, got cast as George Banks in Mary Poppins. Patton was excited to go, he knew how hard everyone worked on it, the QSA talked about it constantly. Logan too voiced that he wanted to go, mostly to support Roman as he didn't find musicals all too entertaining.

Then Patton's urge became too overwhelming, he just had to play with the rubix cubes.

"Lo?" Patton asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I solve your rubix cubes?" He asked.

"Oh." Logan looked away, a little embarassed. "Yes go ahead. I've never actually solved them so you're welcome to."

Patton smiled eagerly and moved off the bed, reaching up to grab the rubix cubes down. He plopped back down on the bed, aware that the other two were staring at him, and started solving. The hinges were used and loose, not quite what Patton was used to, but not entirely unusable. He examined the cube for a few seconds before beginning to solve. It took ten seconds. It had been a while since he solved a rubix cube so he figured he was getting a little rusty. Patton then moved on to the next one, the cubes had been painted on and weren't the stickers like the one before. He solved that one in nine seconds. Still not as fast as he could have in freshman year. Patton grabbed the third and started messing with it as well. This one's gears were a little stuck so it took him ten seconds. Patton finished and set the third down next to the others.

"Wow." Roman said quietly.

"Wh-where did you learn to do that?" Logan asked.

"Megan." Patton said. "She's been learning how to do these since she was six."

"Why'd you want to learn?" Roman asked.

"I thought it was so cool how she could just solve them so fast. Plus I wanted to impress Alex G." Patton giggled, remembering eighth grade him.

"Huh, I can understand that. Alex G was pretty cute in eighth grade." Roman made a look of agreement. "Wonder what happened."

"Roman!" Patton scolded at the passive aggressive comment. "C'mon don't be mean."

"I think it's a fair question." Roman shrugged.

At that moment Remus and Dee had apparently decided to make their entrance. The two burst through the door hand in hand, laughing and smelling a little too much like alcohol.

"Hey bitches!!" Remus shouted. "We're dating!!"

"I know." Logan and Roman both rolled their eyes looking very annoyed with the two.

"Ha, ha, you're all single." Dee laughed.

"You were single like three days ago!" Roman said back.

"You didn't even know you had feelings for Remus until Monday." Logan crossed his arms and huffed.

"Yeah well at least my crush liked me back!" Dee was fully slurring his words at this point.

"Low blow Dee." Logan narrowed his eyes at the other boy

"You two need to cool it on the drinks." Roman said. "Remus, mom's gonna be so mad if you get home like this."

"Wha-ever!" Remus walked over and fell against the bed by Patton. "I'm not going home tonight!"

"Where are you going then?" Roman asked sarcastically.

"I'll go to Dee's!" Remus pointed at his boyfriend.

Dee leaned against the doorframe smugly. "That's right!"

Crash!

Patton and the others looked out the door toward the sound. Clearly something had broken downstairs. Logan let out an annoyed grunt and got up, moving to the door.

"I'll be back once I've sorted out the source of that crashing sound." He explained.

Dee walked over to Patton and sat in front of him on the bed, staring at him intently. "You promised Patty." He almost pointed, then not-so-subtly motioned his head toward the leaving Logan. Patton smiled and sighed at Dee's antics.

"Hey Lo." Patton got off the bed and strode over to him, standing at a comfortable distance. "I think you're really adorable."

The reaction was immediate. Bright pink ears, pretty pink flush, small slightly shy smile, a nervous hand rubbing at his forearm. Just as fast Patton decided he very much liked this look on Logan and would very much like to see it again.

"Thank you Patton." Logan said simply. "I believe you're absolutely beautiful."

Logan turned away swiftly, leaving the room with his eyes trained on the ground.

It was now Patton's turn to go strawberry red. He felt the heat in his cheeks and he put his hands up to hold them. Patton felt the bursts of flowers explode in his chest. His brain was fuzzy, his hands were hot, his heart was beating. Patton knew exactly what this feeling was. And he liked it. He wanted to feel it again.


	16. Ganymede

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan comes to a realization he didn't think he would ever be able to come to, but he can't dwell on it long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric, fluff, studying, talking, pencil throwing, Jupiter’s moon, Percy Jackson mentioned
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: sympathetic Remus and Janus, one or two swear words, food mention, implied angst, insecurity, worrying, pining

"Uhhhhhhggggggg." Roman groaned as he took his seat next to Logan in sixth hour.

"What is it this time Roman?" Logan asked.

"Everyone's vibes are off and it's just ruining everything!" Roman complained.

"Vibes?" Logan looked to Roman a little confused before figuring an explanation would only make it worse. "Nevermind."

"I mean, Remus and Dee I kinda get, but Pat too! And Emile!" Roman put his head down on the desk.

Logan thought about what Roman was talking about. He too had noticed some strange behavior among the others. Remus and Dee were avidly doing their best to never be seen within ten feet of each other. Logan assumed it was because in their drunken state at the Halloween party they had likely told a plethora of people that the two were dating and now had no idea who knew. The distance they were putting between themselves was just a precaution to ensure no word got back to Kayley. Patton had also been acting differently since the Halloween party. He seemed, at least to Logan, to be overly enthusiastic about everything he could. Typically that wouldn't bother Logan, but Patton's intensity was starting to scare him slightly.

Then there was Emile. Emile was the one Logan was the most concerned about. He had been acting particularly out of character according to Logan's observations throughout the day and he felt he had to tell Patton.

"Roman, what have you noticed about Emile today?" Logan asked.

Roman lifted his head up and turned to Logan. "Well, I mean, I usually see him on his way to lunch but today, he was just standing there. Like, he didn't even walk into the cafeteria. He was just holding his lunch box and waiting or something. Then this girl called him to her table and he turned a full 180 and ran off."

"Hmm." Logan hummed. "I'm concerned for him, Roman. I too have noticed his unusual behavior today and I do think it's worrisome."

"What did you see?" Roman asked him.

"Before school, while I was on my way to Mrs. Willias' classroom, Emile ran into me."

"He's kinda clumsy yeah. I really think that he's the future male lead in a high school romcom." Roman said.

"Anyway," Logan rolled his eyes as his friend. "When he ran into me, Emile fell back on the floor and when I went to help him up I found him just sort of sitting there. For lack of a better way to explain his expression I'll simply tell you he appeared to be thinking 'well this might as well happen'. I asked him if he was okay and went to help him, but he just loudly exclaimed he was fine and ran off."

"That's weird." Roman remarked.

"I know, that's why I'm telling you." Logan stated. "Also, right before I entered the classroom just a few moments ago, something similar happened. Emile rushed past me and ran into Dee. When Dee was about to apologize he once again said he was sorry rather loudly and just left as fast as he could."

Roman and Logan were both a little quiet in thought.

"I think we should tell Pat." Roman said. "He'll want to know about all of this."

"Agreed." Logan told him.

"Roman! Logan!" Ms. Ryans threw a pencil between the two for their attention. "Class started so shut up!"

The two turned forward on their desk and stared at attention. There were a few snickers around the room but that was muffled by her continued explanation of a new project. Another famous Ryans project. One thing Logan was told before attending her class was that she makes everyone do an insane amount of projects and you never get to pick your partner. That had made Logan apprehensive considering he found a large percentage of his class to be utterly incompitent. However, she seemed to favor pairing Patton and Logan at every chance she got, so Logan stopped minding. Other than that time when she made him work with Remus. He had really minded that.

Logan caught Patton's gaze out of the corner of his eye and saw the other was actively reading something under the desk. He occasionally looked up to Ryans so she wouldn't get suspicious, but would go right back to reading.

"Now!" Ryans clapped her hands together, successfully causing everyone in the classroom to jump a little. "Remember this is due Thursday, you can work on it in class on Wednesday, but other than today and Wednesday you get no other in class work time. So I expect you and your partner to meet up or do something at some point. Don't give me that 'we couldn't schedule it' crap, alright. Facetime and Zoom do exist."

The students started to stir, knowing what came next.

"As usual, you and your partner meet at one of your desks, send one of you up to grab these papers," She gestured to the stacks of different colored papers on her desk. "And get to work. Finally, before I start calling out names, the project reminder; if you use comic sans anywhere on your project. . ."

"You immediately go down a letter grade." The class chanted back to her.

"Well done." Ryans rolled her eyes and moved in front of her computer. "Next time you all can harmonize. Alright, Danni and Roman."

Logan watched as Roman turned around to Danni behind the two and high-fived.

"Lex and Hollie. Faith and Isaiah. Oliver and Reece. Penny and Jacob. Portia and Remus. Alex and Kayley. Song and Uma. Dee and Isaac. Patton and Logan." Ms. Ryans was still talking but Logan stopped listening and instead fully looked over to Patton who had already hopped out of his chair and was practically bouncing his way over to Logan.

"Hey Lo." Patton gave him a little wave as he sat down where Roman had previously been. "So, I was thinking, for our project, we could do it on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. I'll be honest with you, I've been rereading Percy Jackson and it totally reminded me how much I love ancient greek history, so I've been doing a lot of reading. And just last night I read about Ganymede many retellings, and I know you probably already know about him 'cause you basically know everything, but I just think his story is a little fun and kinda on-brand. Ya' know, considering he was a guy who was so pretty that even the gods were like 'he needs to be up here with us'. Not that I see myself as him or anything! That's not what I'm trying to say. Just more of a, that story is super gay and well I'm super gay so-oh gosh this isn't making any sense, is it?"

Logan blinked a few times as he took in everything Patton had said.

"Logan?" Patton waved his hand again, this time for Logan's attention.

"Sorry Patton." Logan quickly replied. "I have been paying attention to what you've said, however, I'm afraid not much else."

"Oh." Patton tilted his head. "What's going on?"

"I've noticed a few things about Emile throughout the day that have caused me to worry for him. I think it's important that you understand where I'm coming from. You do know him best." Logan stated.

"Ah." Patton nodded. "I've kinda noticed that too. He just seems a little distant today. Here, how about I go up and grab the papers we need, then when I get back you tell me about Emile?"

"Alright." Logan agreed and Patton got up, swiftly grabbing the necessary papers and sitting back down, looking at Logan impatiently. Logan told him of the two interactions with Emile that he had experienced, then added in Roman's as well. "Patton, do you know of any reason why Emile would be acting this way recently."

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Patton said a little sadly. "Usually when Emile gets distant it's because he's thinking about Thomas. This can happen after a particularly bad battle. He just starts thinking about Thomas a lot and well, you can imagine the kind of stress that comes with being the kid of a dad who literally drops everything to fight aliens every week or so. But, Emile sees a therapist about that stuff. Renette set all of it up a few years ago. Emile talks to a professional about how he feels and frankly the results have been great. He's been handling it a lot better. And, well, I'm a Ranger now so we don't talk about that very much anymore, but if it was hurting him so bad he would tell me. So, I can't believe it's because of Thomas. But then, I've got nothing."

Logan took in Patton's posture for the first time that day. His shoulders were surprisingly relaxed and he was gently rubbing at his forearm much like the way Logan would. Logan started thinking about Patton's behavior since the Halloween party yet again. His enthusiasm over small things like texting or little trinkets was a pattern that Logan had seen before, but never to this extent. Then there was the constant coat of pink over Patton's ears, his rushed speech, his spring-like walk, the amount of times he would info-dump on Logan was starting to increase, and then there was his laugh. Patton would laugh or giggle or chuckle at the simplest remarks and while Logan would never complain about his infectious laughter, he couldn't brush past it's frequency. At that moment, Logan decided to take a chance. Patton was looking away from him, so to get his attention focused back Logan reached out to Patton's forearm. Patton immediately looked Logan in the eye and softened entirely. Logan let his hand fall to Patton's wrist and subtly placed his fingers over his pulse point.

"Patton," Logan started. "what do you know of Emile's girlfriend?"

"Sara?" Patton looked away and back again. "I mean, I know some stuff about her. Do you think she has something to do with this?"

"I wouldn't rule it out." Logan said.

"Well, if it did have to do with Sara, then he would definitely tell me. Talking about crushes and stuff like that are some of the only normal conversations we get to have. Emile always talks to me about how him and Sara are doing." The other said, though Logan could hear the creeping insecurity.

"Okay." Logan said. "But Patton, I think it's worth pondering."

"If you say so." Patton nodded. "What do you want to know about Sara?"

"Anything you know." Logan told him.

"You got it." Patton smiled. "But you need to promise me that you never tell Emile that I know these things."

"Patton I'm sure it won't ever be necessary for me to tell Emile that you know about his girlfriend." Logan chuckled a little.

"Promise me." Patton stuck his pinky up for Logan to shake with his own.

Logan sighed and gave Patton a small smile before doing as indicated.

"Okay." Patton took a deep breath. "Sara Bringham is the daughter of Malcolm and Olivia Bringham. They moved to our town when Sara was going into the sixth grade because her father had gotten a job as a lawyer at a private firm not far from here. Her mom recently became a leader of the PTA and quit her job to be a stay at home mom. Sara has no siblings and no cousins that she's particularly close too. Sara also has no pets. Her immediate inner circle of friends consists of Poppy Harold, Hope Wilde, and Jermaine Green. Her favorite colors in order are dark blue, yellow, and silver. In the seventh grade Sara dated Luke Kelly, but that ended soon after she came out as bisexual, though that being the reason was never confirmed. She shares second, fourth, and fifth hour with Emile. She used to be a student that averaged a B or B minus but since dating Emile that average has gone up to A. Her and Emile have been dating for an impressive eight months considering most relationships starting in eighth grade don't last a few weeks. During the summer they did have a dispute that led to them not speaking for a day and half until making up with each other. According to those who know her best Sara is very headstrong and determined while those who aren't fond of her call her a teacher's pet. She's been in choir since seventh grade and has gotten five solos, though personally I think a few weren't too deserving. Sara is known to wear expensive makeup and lip tint and that has been the cause of some nasty rumors, but when I pried at them I found very few freshmen would actually say anything bad about her for fear of Emile no longer considering them a friend. So far, it seems their relationship has helped Emile branch out and be more open with others, while Sara gained better grades and kinder words from her peers. Ultimately I'm not the biggest fan of her, but Emile really seems to like her and I trust his judgement."

Logan stared. "Okay, so some of that seems like a bit of an invasion of privacy, however, that was helpful."

"Yeah," Patton sighed. "Poppy really likes to talk. Anyway, what did you get from that?"

"Well, if I'm being honest, considering what Roman had seen today in the cafeteria, I don't think it's much of a leap we'd be taking if we were to assume that Emile's problems lie with Sara." Logan told him.

"But, why wouldn't he tell me about it then?" Patton asked.

"Perhaps, from Emile's perspective, you have other, more important things to be worried about than a romantic relationship that isn't even your own." Logan suggested.

"No, Emile knows he can tell me about anything. Doesn't matter the circumstances." Patton said.

"Patton-"

"Logan! Patton!" Ryans once again threw a pencil to gain attention. "God what is with you boys and not listening to me! Stop the whispering and the staring and whatever and get to work! Jeez."

Logan and Patton grabbed whichever paper was closest to them and stared at it, feigning interest.

"I guess Emile isn't the only one in a mood." Patton mumbled.

"What made Ryans so impatient today?" Logan asked.

"Oh, I think she's been doing paperwork about Poisandana all day." Patton stated.

"How do you know?"

"The reflection of the computer on her reading glasses." Patton explained.

"Ah." Logan nodded.

Logan and Patton decided to split up the work in a way that Logan saw as efficient and soon class was over. Because it was Monday Logan and Patton met Roman outside of class and the three walked to QSA together. Patton had really prepared a well thought out meeting that day, including some light hearted but in depth discussions about gender and gender expression. One of the juniors had happily provided some sweets and it was over quicker than Logan had thought, but soon he and Patton were on their way to Patton's house to work on the project.

Logan always liked working on projects at Patton's house because the environment was always much like Patton himself, comforting. It also didn't hurt that it constantly smelled like coffee. Patton himself didn't drink coffee, but apparently both Susan and Megan did. Roman, after going to Patton's house for the first time as a sophomore, described it as being surrounded by the smell of coffee and strawberries. Since then Logan had noticed that he too had associated coffee and strawberries with Patton subconsciously.

When they stepped up to Patton's home and opened the doors Logan was yet again struck with the overpowering sense of coffee and strawberries. He truly didn't mind.

"Susan!" Patton called. "Mother I'm-"

"Patton!" Susan ran to greet the two, but stopped her movement once seeing Logan. "What is he doing here?"

"Uhm, we have a science project and-"

"Patton Valentine!" Susan grabbed the towel she had had on her shoulder and put her hands on her hips. "You know the rules. If you're bringing someone over, you clean your room to my standards, and text me at least an hour before. Especially if you're bringing over a boy."

"I'm sorry I really meant to I just kinda forgot." Patton looked away from Logan in embarrassment.

"You've been very forgetful lately." Susan wagged the towel at him. "I'm gonna forgive you but if this keeps happening I won't be too happy about it."

"I know Mom." Patton sighed, thankful.

"I don't want any repeats of the Maxwell situa-"

"Okay!" Patton squeaked and interrupted Susan. "We're gonna go upstairs and work on our project! Bye bye!"

Patton quickly tried ushering Logan up the stairs.

"It's good to see you again Logan!" Susan waved after them.

"Pleasure to see you too Susan." Logan said back.

They were soon out of earshot and Patton let out a sigh.

"Maxwell situation?" Logan decided to ask. "She can't be referring to Maxwell Carson, can she?"

"No." Patton said simply. "You don't know him. Thankfully."

"Well, can I know what happened?"

"Absolutely not." Patton shook his head as he opened the door.

"Well, if I was Roman I would continuously irk you until you told me what deemed that very name to be such an embarrassment." Logan prattled on.

"Good thing you're not Roman then." Patton said. The words sounded a little harsh but one look at Patton's smile told Logan he was still in the clear.

"You'll tell me some day." Logan said.

"Nopity nope. Not gonna happen." Patton made his way over to his bed and put his bag down on the floor, sifting through it, likely for the project's papers.

"I can be persuasive." Logan adjusted his glasses on his face.

"Eh, I know your tricks. I can get around all your persuasion. You'll never know." Patton laughed a little, finally pulling the papers out, along with his laptop.

"I think you underestimate how well I can debate." Logan said.

"Oh please, I'd never underestimate you." Patton said, not making eye contact. "But I'll tell you what, if you promise to never mention this again to anyone, I'll tell you what happened."

"Alright then, I promise." Logan shrugged, seemed easy enough.

"Good." Patton held out his pinky. "Come on, you know how this works."

Logan rolled his eyes and egan making his way through Patton's messy room to the bed. Little knick knacks and unfinished projects scattered the floor. Clothes were strewn about and empty dishes were piled up in various places. Logan could tell why Susan wanted the room clean to her standards. He figured this wasn't too far off of what Remus' dream room would look like if he could actually do anything in it. Of course, Remus's room wouldn't have a wall of painted on clouds and stickers almost completely covering the walls around Patton's bed.

Logan sat next to Patton and extended his own pinky, about to wrap it around Patton's.

"I'll tell you what happened the day Roman and Virgilius start dating!" Patton suddenly shouted just before shaking Logan's pinky with his.

"No!" Logan stared at Patton in slight shock.

"Ha!" Patton pulled his hand back and covered his mouth as he started laughing. "Oh my gosh I'm a genius!"

"You tricked me." Logan said baffled.

"I did." Patton nodded. "And I'm sorry. But I'm not really sorry 'cause 'I'd rather not lose all of my dignity today."

Logan laughed and looked away, a little annoyed, but mostly amused.

"Well, I guess I did promise so." Logan said.

"You did. And that's the deal." Patton turned back to his laptop, but he continued to sneak a few glances Logan's way.

Logan brought out his own papers and laptop and the two actually got to work. Logan, ever the lover of graphs and in-depth explanations, began working on the diagram portion of their project. Luckily, the moon Patton had chosen wasn't too difficult for him to research so Logan was able to efficiently finish enough work for that day in an hour. Five o'clock rolled around and Logan began to get a little hungry, knowing he may have to leave Patton's soon to get home for dinner. However, he figured he still had time and decided to start helping Patton on his portion of the project.

When Logan returned his attention to the other, he found Patton to be in apparent state of stress. His shoulders were tense, his eyes narrow, his brow furrowed, and he was tapping at the keyboard aggressively. Logan watched for a few minutes as Patton tried to keep his focus on the screen in front of him, but it kept drifting off to something Logan couldn't guess. As he watched he saw Patton's eyes begin to glisten and Logan knew he had to stop this now.

"Patton?" He asked softly. "Is everything okay?"

"What?" Patton turned to Logan swiftly. "Yeah everything's fine, why do you ask?"

"Patton." Logan sighed.

"Okay, okay, you got me!" Patton put his hands up in surrender. "Fine yes, I'm a little stressed. We started working on the project and I just couldn't stop thinking about Virgilius because of, well the promise we made. Then, I started thinking about Emile again and I just-ugh! This is so dumb! I'm really sorry, I'm trying to focus but I just can't and we aren't gonna do well on this project."

Logan was quiet for a beat.

"How about you and I take a break?" He suggested.

"What?" Patton asked, genuinely confused. "Who are you and what have you done with Logan?"

"Ha ha." Logan reached a hand over to Patton's forearm. "Patton, I think it would be helpful for the two of us to take a break from working. Your stress is negatively affecting your work and that's unhealthy to continue. We should go do a quick leisure activity to relax and then we can come back to the project, hopefully at that point you can work more efficiently. Many studies show that taking breaks from work and coming back to it will improve productivity."

"Really?" Patton asked, though it seemed rhetorical so Logan didn't answer. "Well okay. What should we do?"

Logan thought about it. "Would you like to go get ice cream?"

"That sounds good!" Patton hopped up. "I'm a little hungry and I get discounts from Megan."

"Alright then." Logan nodded.

The two left Patton's room and went downstairs where they put on their shoes and Patton gave his mother a quick explanation as to where they were going. Susan gave the boys a goodbye wave and they began their quick walk to Twister's.

Patton began to chatter on about the Percy Jackson series after Logan asking about his sudden reinterest in them, and Logan listened attentively. He rather liked listening to Patton talk about his interests like this. It was fast paced but rather organized considering, as far as Logan knew, there was no rehearsing of this conversation.

However, the moment was suddenly ruined when Logan and Patton both began getting frantic texts on the Power Rangers group chat.

"Oh you've got to joking." Patton mumbled to himself as he looked at his phone screen.

"It's only Monday." Logan said, running a hand through his hair. "It's been three days."

"Oh gosh I'm gettin real sick of this." Patton said shoving his phone back in his pocket.

The two started running back to Patton's house and hopped in his car, getting into Ranger gear and driving to the site of the attack. When they arrived the others were all already there and already fighting.

"Oh so nice of you to join us!!" Dee yelled sarcastically as Logan ran over to help him.

"Lay off Dee, you know they can't think straight!" Remus cackled as he ran past the two.

"Ha!" Dee laughed out. "They really are disaster gays aren't they!"

"Stop acting like you two are better than everyone else just because you're dating!" Roman shouted as he shoved his sword into a monster nearby.

"We're better than everyone in or out of a relationship!" Remus responded.

"Thomas can you make them shut up!?" Roman yelled angrily.

"If I could I would have done it already!" Thomas said exacerbated.

"Hey!" Dee and Remus shouted back.

"All of you shush! Something's coming!" Patton yelled over everyone.

Their attention successfully gotten, Patton pointed across the field to a newly opening breach.

"Who do you think's gonna fight this one?" Roman asked.

"Ten bucks says it's me!" Remus called, shoving back against a monster.

"I'll take that bet!" Roman said.

"Oh god I hope it's me." Remus snarled. "I'm gonna break this bitch in half!"

"Remus!" Patton scolded.

"You literally swore last fight! I think I'm allowed this!!" Remus retorted.

"Focus!" Logan yelled to the others, preparing himself.


	17. Remy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emile's going through his teenage years, this of course including teenage romance, or lack thereof. And there's another new face, only this time he's not trying to fight them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Roman centric, Remy’s first offical appearance, a dog, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: sympathetic Remus and Janus, swearing, violence, injury, taking out anger in destructive ways, mentions of killing, (let me know if I missed any, it’s late and I probably did)

Roman brought his sword down on a witchling and watched it fall to dust. He turned to Logan close by and saw his friend in need of some quick help. Roman ran over and the two followed their practiced routine of shoulder to shoulder duo combat. Logan slashing away rather annoyed if Roman did say. While Roman's graceful attacks took witchlings down that surrounded them, Logan mercilessly hacked away.

"Whoa, dude, what is up with you?" Roman jokingly asked.

"Nothing!" Logan exclaimed as he stabbed his lance deep into a witchling's stomach.

"O-oh I know." Roman drew out the 'o'. "You and Pat were studying alone together ha! You're such a gay-"

"Now is not the time!" Logan pulled his lance back and took the time to smack Roman upside the head. "Can you think of anything but romance?"

"Ow!" Roman stepped forward and turned to Logan, exacerbated. "No, I can't. Especially when it's your romance. I've been listening to your pinning since freshman year and it's finally getting somewhere!"

"Would you keep it down!" Logan thrusted his lance at a witchling again.

"Oh please, it's not like anyone here doesn't know. Even Virgilius knew!" Roman chuckled.

"The whole block is gonna know if you don't shut up!!" Logan snapped.

"Well maybe if you just listened to me and-"

"Oh! You little shit! How dare you!!" Baron Odium screeched.

Baron Odium being the newest villain to fight the Power Rangers was promptly given to Dee. The caricature wore a bright yellow and silver armor reminiscent of royal regalia. However, he paired it with a yellow kimono and a kitsune mask that Roman only recognized from Animal Crossing-and was a little ashamed to admit that.

"I know how dare I have the audacity to attack someone who literally just shot my boyfriend with freaky alien magic!!" Dee yelled back.

"Avenge me Bumblebee!" Remus yelled from where he lay on the ground.

"Oh get up, you're fine!!" Dee shouted over his shoulder. "And you!" Dee pointed a dagger at Odium. "What the hell are you wearing?!"

"Tell 'em baby I'm so proud of you!" Remus said, hopping up and readying himself for battle.

"This is borderline cultural appropriation! Right Pink? I mean this is like, not okay?" Dee turned to Patton a little.

"Well," Patton drew an arrow back and fired into the head of one of the witchlings as it was about to attack Roman. "Considering the Kitsune mask and kimono are both Japanese and I'm korean I'd say both of you are being a little micro-aggressiony."

"Fair." Dee shrugged before chucking the dagger he was holding at Odium. "Dammit stop dodging my knives! I need to get home!"

"That means nothing to me!!" Baron Odium yelled back.

"Your face means nothing!" Dee said impulsively. "No, that doesn't make sense."

"I mean, it made some sense!" Thomas said as he ran behind Dee toward a different hoard of witchlings.

"No it didn't!" Roman argued.

"Can everyone shut up and fight?!!" Logan yelled.

"Hey, don't be all pissed cause Baron Bitch-Ass date blocked you!" Remus snickered.

"Green!!" Patton scolded.

"What?!" Remus looked to Patton. "I didn't say co-"

"That's enough!!" Baron Odium brought his hands down and they started glowing silver.

The silver then shot out of his hands and into the ground causing the glow to spread through the roots of the grass and weeds. Suddenly from areas in the dirt silver light shot up striking each of the Rangers somewhere. Roman got hit in the leg and it caused him to stumble away and fall, cradling his leg. He looked around for his friends. Patton was holding his arm, Thomas was also clutching his leg, Remus cradled his shoulder and swayed where he stood, and Dee was hopping on one foot before putting it down and wincing.

"Logan?" Roman asked.

"Ugh." Logan groaned in return.

Roman shifted around and eventually stood, though it hurt, and hobbled his way over to Logan who was huddled over in the grass.

"Stomach or chest?"

"Blegh."

"Stomach. Got it." Roman nodded. "Uh hey guys, Logan's hit pretty bad! Dang, today is just not your day."

Logan mumbled something again and rolled on his side.

"Alright, I'm gonna pretend like I didn't just hear you tell me to 'f off' and instead help you." Roman rolled his eyes.

"Come on!!!" Dee screamed. "Did you not hear what I said!? I need to get home, so either kill me or let me kill you!!!"

"Damn, Yellow chill." Remus tried.

Dee rounded on Remus and pointed a finger at him. "I will not chill!! This jagoff either needs to end me or get out of my way!! I should be eating Kapenta and Sadza right now!!! Not fighting the Lord of the Minions!!!"

"I am not a Lord! I'm a baron!" Odium said.

"Oh you son of a-" Remus grabbed Dee's arm as he turned to throw another dagger at Odium.

"Go around." Remus told him.

"Ugh." Dee brought his arm down. "Fine."

"You and me." Thomas ran by the two and pointed at Remus.

"On it." Remus nodded.

Thomas and Remus started on the Baron, drawing their weapons. Patton made his way over to Roman and Logan firing at the witchlings that were heading for them. Eventually he stood between the two friends and the monsters, multi-tasking by asking about Logan's health and fighting the witchlings. Dee meanwhile, snuck around the back of the villain, waiting for the right moment to strike. Finally, he got the perfect break and ran forward. Just as Baron Odium thought he had Remus and Thomas pinned, Dee stabbed his dagger through his back. The villain howled. Dee then went on to repeatedly stab him in the back until he fell to dust in the field. Dee dropped to his knees in the grass, breathing heavily.

Patton dropped the last witchling and turned quickly to Logan's side.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Nnngh ehm meh." Logan replied.

"Aw, Lo." Patton soothed. "I have no idea what you said."

Thomas walked over to the three and knelt down like them.

"Hey, let's get him to my place now. The magic will wear off in the car." Thomas said.

"How do you know?" Roman asked.

"That's what we've gotta talk about." Thomas sighed.

Patton looked over to Dee and Remus who were now both on the ground.

"Thomas," Patton started. "what-what's going on?"

"I don't know." Thomas told him truthfully. "Remus said they'll meet us in a bit." Thomas explained.

"Okay." Patton nodded.

Patton and Roman brought Logan to Roman's car and the four drove off in their respective vehicles. Roman's jeep immediately continued the playlist he had been listening to before. As he drove Roman unsummoned his armor and Logan began stirring and was eventually coherent enough to also unsummon his own Ranger suit. Once the light faded in the car Roman turned to Logan quickly before looking back again at the road. They sat in silence for a bit, until Roman asked Logan about the 'study date'. Logan groaned and flicked his friend, explaining it wasn't a date. He did however say the two were going to get ice cream when they were so rudely interrupted.

When they reached Thomas' house Roman and Logan got out and met Thomas just before going inside. Patton got there soon after and entered as well. Once in, they all collapsed in various positions on the rather large couch.

"Hang on, I'll go check on Emile." Thomas said with a groan as he stood.

Roman didn't miss the look Logan and Patton shared as Thomas walked off. He didn't say anything however, only waiting for Thomas to return.

"Thomas, um," Patton said once they saw the older man re-enter the living room. "Emile-"

"Emile's been acting a little weird?" Thomas finished. "Yeah."

"Do you know what's going on?" Logan asked.

"Yep." Thomas nodded, then looked at the boy's faces. "It might be good for you guys to talk to him at some point though, I know he'd like it."

The three nodded, though they knew that moment wasn't now. Remus and Dee showed up not long after and silently all the Rangers made their way to the basement.

"Alright, Thomas, explain." Logan prompted.

The others took their typical seats and Thomas stood, heading over to Logan's conspiracy board and writing on a sticky note.

"Baron Odium." Thomas said, sticking the sticky-note up, and going on to find another, blue colored sticky-note. "Has fought us before. Years ago. I had been a Ranger for two weeks and Baron Odium was the 'villain of the week'. However, instead of yellow, he was blue, and before you ask yes, he was wearing a kimono. Though, the mask is new."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Patton asked.

"Hit with a magic blast." Thomas dead-panned. "Anyway, the silver dirt thing hit Joan and they were out for a while. So, I knew you'd be fine." He gestured to Logan.

"Wait, so she literally just sent the same guy again to fight us, that fought you?" Roman asked. "Just made him yellow?"

"Exactly. This time though, he didn't say anything to me. The last time something like this happened, I told you, he kept saying that he would beat us unlike last time. He knew that we beat him before. But this guy, I mean every general is so egotistical it makes no sense that Odium didn't say anything to me." Thomas went on.

"Perhaps, he simply didn't want to acknowledge you?" Logan suggested.

"Yeah, like, he doesn't want to admit you beat him before." Dee said. "It's like a pride thing."

"Or, maybe he's not allowed to say anything about it anymore. Like after that first time you fought a-a clone or something, the Dragon Witch said they're not allowed to talk about it again." Patton shrugged.

"Both are viable answers." Logan nodded.

"Or! He just doesn't remember. I mean it was like, forever ago." Remus drawled on.

"Not likely." Logan said. "Thomas, didn't you say it had been decades since you faced the villain and yet he still remembered."

"Yeah." Thomas had taken a pink sticky-note and put it next to the yellow one. He began writing down the explanations the others had given and stepped back. "Something isn't right about this."

"Pat, did you get any feeling from him?" Roman asked. "With Virgilius you always got this feeling."

"That's it!!" Patton stood suddenly looking panicked. "That's what felt so wrong during the fight. That's the thing that's been bothering me ever since Virgilius disappeared!! Every single general that we fight, I've felt nothing!!"

"What?" Thomas asked.

"When it was Virgilius there was always something off about him. Like we've said before, he gave off a weird feeling, but he always gave off a feeling. Everyone gives off a feeling, I'm just really good at figuring out what that feeling is." Patton said all of this very quickly. "But with all of the generals we've faced since? I've felt absolutely nothing!! No motive, no care, no anger, no excitement, no fear!" Patton then strode across to where a child-like sketch that Remus had done of Astromania was. "Except her."

"Astromania? The shape-shifter?" Dee asked.

"I wasn't too close, but when she started saying 'they'll love this', I mean, that was the first time and the only time any of these generals actually gave me a sense of emotion. Sure, they look angry and sound angry, but they're all hollow." Patton continued. "When she was talking about Virgilius, it was exactly like what Logan had said, maternal."

It was quiet.

"Something is really, really wrong with these generals." Roman said.

Thomas went over to Logan's 'questions' board and started writing down a summary of what Patton had said.

"I need to tell Renette." Thomas said to the group.

"What does this mean?" Roman asked. "I mean, what are we even asking? Why the crazy aliens are attacking us? Come on, what's the point?"

"The point is trying to understand our enemy." Logan told him. "The more we know about them, it's possible that it'll be easier to fight them."

"Even stop the Dragon Witch for good." Patton said softly.

It was quiet again before Thomas spoke up.

"Alright, I really gotta tell Renette." He told the boys. "I'll be right back."

With that he left for upstairs. Roman looked around at his friends. They seemed to be doing their usual thing, Logan staring at Patton with a faraway adoration, Remus grabbing something off of the ground and immediately putting it in his mouth like a toddler, Dee scolding Remus but not as effectively due to the soft amusement in his tone, then Patton, he was the only one not acting his usual self. He was looking at Remus and Dee, trying to see something in the way they acted that Roman couldn't.

"Dee, what happened today?" Patton finally asked.

Dee looked away from Remus and to Patton. "What do you mean?"

"You were so mad while fighting." Patton explained.

"It was very out of character for you." Logan chimed in.

"I-" Dee stopped himself. "It's just been a bad day."

"Dee." Remus said. "C'mon, they're saints. They'll probably wanna fix it for us."

"Well, I'm not sure I want to tell them the whole story." Dee grumbled.

"You don't have to, it's perfectly fine to keep it to yourself." Patton tried to assure the two.

"Dee. . . ." Remus trailed off. "You know they can help."

Dee sucked in a breath and let it out fast. "Pat remember when Astromania attacked and I kept talking to you about Remus?"

"Yeah." Patton nodded.

"Well, I planned on giving you a note. I didn't really want to talk about it so I wrote it all down." Dee said. "Then the witchlings started attacking and that went out the window."

"I thought you two went out the roof?" Logan asked.

"Not the time for your adorable misunderstanding of metaphors." Patton patted the top of Logan's head.

"Yeah anyway," Dee rolled his eyes. "I dropped the note and apparently while everyone was leaving, Kayley snuck over and took it."

"Oh no." Patton sighed.

"And read it." Dee crossed his arms. "All of it."

"Jeez." Roman brought his hand up to his mouth. "What's she making you do?"

"No talking to Remus, no sitting near Remus, no being associated with him in any way until I get over this 'stupid crush'." Dee made air quotes over the last two words. "She just keeps saying all of this shit and it's so annoying! Then today, she's tried to set me up on four dates with four different guys! She's ridiculous. I just want it to stop."

It got quiet again.

"Damn." Roman said. "She's such a bitch, just tell her you two are dating and stop being her friend. It's that simple."

"No, Ro, it's not." Remus said to everyone's surprise.

No one else wanted to say anything. Suddenly from above them the Rangers heard banging and crashing. It startled them all, but no one moved.

"That's coming from Emile's room. It's right above us." Patton stated. He was the first to hop up and race up the stairs, quickly followed by the others. "Thomas! Emile!"

Thomas walked in front of the boys to stop them. He put a finger over his lips to tell them to be quiet then gestured to the phone still on his ear. "No, no, Renette, everything's fine. Yeah, yeah that was all. Okay. Thanks. I'll let you know if there are any updates."

He hung up the phone and looked down the hallway to Emile's room.

"Thomas what's going on?" Patton asked.

"I don't really know. I mean, I know, but I don't know what just happened. Look, Emile's fine, just, something must have happened, I-" Thomas was holding something back, they could all tell. "You guys need to go home."

"What?" Patton asked. "No, I want to know what's happening with Emile."

Thomas exhaled. "Alright, if he says it's okay then go talk to him, but after that you guys need to go. It's late and school's gonna be rough tomorrow for all of you."

The boys nodded and made their way to Emile's room. Patton stood at the door and knocked quietly, listening.

"I think I hear music." Patton told them. "It's really muffled though."

"Alright let's just go in." Remus pushed past the others and opened the door.

"No Remus don't-" Patton tried to stop him but failed. "Ugh."

When Roman stepped in he felt he knew half the story already. Emile sat on his pillows on his bed, surrounded by blankets and plushies, wearing giant headphones that were blasting punk rock music, and typing at his computer furiously. His room wasn't too messy, but when Roman looked to the right he saw a stuffed animal on the ground surrounded by some broken items. He looked at the wall and saw a shelf that had broken off of one of its nails. Roman figured Emile must have thrown something at the shelf causing items to fall and break. Roman knew these actions and he didn't doubt that if he looked in Emile's closet he might even find shirts cut up into crop tops. This was a matter of a broken heart.

Remus strided over to the bed and sat down, close to Emile. He was listening to the music, Roman realized. Patton went and sat at the end of the bed, patiently. Dee decided to sit at the floor close to Remus. Logan went over and sat on Emile's desk chair and Roman sat at the end of the bed by Patton. No one spoke.

Then the aggressive clacking of the keys stopped and Emile slammed his laptop shut with an angry huff. He looked around the room at the others and took off his headphones, setting them on the bed but not stopping the music.

"The Regrettes?" Remus asked him.

"Remy really likes them." Emile offered. Roman didn't understand what the two were talking about.

"Never took you for a punk rock listener." Remus chuckled.

"I'm not, I usually listen to lofi or soundtracks. He just told me it might make me feel better." Emile looked to Remus with a small smile. "And Remy says they're a riot grrrl band."

"Well they're a riot grrrl band too." Remus replied. "Did it help?"

"A little." Emile shrugged.

"Mind if I. . . ." Remus pointed to the headphones.

"Go ahead." Emile told him.

Remus grabbed the headphones and put them on, immediately bobbing his head and lip-syncing to the music.

"So, Emile, you wanna talk or no?" Patton asked.

"Yes and no." Emile told him shyly.

"Is it Sara?" Logan asked.

Emile looked at him in shock, then it morphed into a mix of annoyance and humor.

"Could you stop being Sherlock freaking Holmes for two seconds Logan?" Emile asked sarcastically.

"I'm not-" Patton stopped Logan from speaking.

"What's going on?" Roman asked.

"Break up?" Dee asked bluntly.

"No!" Emile quickly said. "No, no, no, we haven't broken up. It's just, really hard right now."

"What is?" Patton asked.

"Do you-have you ever told someone something about yourself because you have to." Emile crossed his arms and tucked his head down. "I mean, everyone online and in your life has said that you have to tell the person you're with this kind of thing about you. But, you're not ready. You're not ready and you feel rushed and scared, then, everything just spills out of you cause you're sick of feeling guilty for not telling them. You weren't ready and you knew that, but you got this sickening feeling in your stomach every time you saw them and you knew that if you just told them it would be over."

It was really quiet now.

"So you tell them, everything." Emile said. "And they, tell you, to tell everyone. They want you to 'get over yourself' and tell everyone everything. They want you to tell the whole school, all your friends, your whole family. And-and then you tell her no, you don't want to and don't have to and-and then you tell her that you didn't even want to tell her and that Remy told you that if you don't want to you don't have to. Then she got mad at you for telling Remy first. It was all a big mistake and you didn't want to and now you can't stop hearing the end of it. So, the best thing you can do to make sure you're okay is tell your dad, so you force yourself to tell your dad way to soon and you know it's fine but that doesn't help!"

"So, Sara wants you to tell everyone something that you don't want to?" Dee asked.

"And she's mad that you told Remy before her?" Logan asked with an angry tone

"And she forced you to tell Thomas?" Patton sounded so furious it made Roman recoil.

Emile didn't respond. He just sat there looking down at his blankets. Dee got up from where he sat and looked at Emile.

"Emile, that's awful." He said. "I mean that's-that's-"

"Not healthy." Patton finished with aggression. "That's so wrong. So, awful, Emile you have to know how absolutely awful that is. That's manipulation!"

"Pat." Roman put a hand on Patton's shoulder to try and calm him down.

"Sorry." Patton sat back.

"Emile, Patton's not entirely wrong." Logan said. "That-that is quite manipulative of Sara."

"She just thinks she knows what I want but she doesn't and-"

"She's not listening to you about what you want." Dee said. "That's what she's doing."

"This all makes her sound so bad, she's not, I'm just upset. She's really not bad at all, I'm sorry I-"

A loud knock on the window startled everyone but Remus who was still listening to music through the headphones.

"God, Remy!" Emile sighed. He got off the bed, successfully getting the attention of Remus who slipped the headphones off. Emile strode over to the desk and politely but silently asked Logan to move. He went to the window and opened it. Roman noticed there was no screen but couldn't see out of it because Emile was blocking the view. "Remy I said ten!"

"Is it not ten?" Another voice asked sarcastically. "Sorry cutie I can't read." He had an accent that Roman couldn't quite place.

"That's not an excuse. You can set alarms on your phone." Emile replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I needed to get out of there alright? And you," Remy lead on. "Need to get out of this room before all your shirts become crop-tops."

"It was three." Emile rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, mind helping me in?" Remy asked. Emile laughed and reached outside, then began helping his friend through the window.

When the kid was inside Roman finally got a good look at the famous Remy he had heard so much about. He was shorter than Emile, wore a plain white shirt, a blue intricately patterned button up, a faux leather jacket, and mom-jeans. Then there was the pair of sunglasses that sat on the bridge of his nose.

"Hey Latte." Emile cooed, still looking out the window. He leaned down and grabbed another thing, then hoisted a little dog inside. A dachshund. "How's the bestest doggy in the world?"

"Ugh, a little brat."

"He is not." Emile scratched the dog under his chin.

"Kinda." Remy shrugged. "Now, there's a shadow on that wall so who's here?"

"Oh, right," Emile giggled. "Uh, everyone's here? Patton, Roman, Remus, Dee and Logan."

"The whole troop huh? All the Rangers?" Remy turned to Emile, though not entirely. "That's fun."

"So you're Remy?" Patton asked.

"The one and only." Remy bowed his head a little. "Think I can be in one of your YouTube videos?"

"Absolutely!" Patton cheered.

"Sweet, I've been watching your channel forever! Very cute stuff."

"Aww thanks." Patton smiled. Roman noticed remy wasn't looking at Patton, or really anyone, he appeared to be staring off, though the sunglasses didn't make it easy to see his eyes.

"Why the sunglasses? The sun's nearly down." Dee pointed out.

"Oh." Emile's eyes widened.

"You didn't tell them?"

"I'm not really supposed to talk about you much Remy."

"Well we both know you don't stick to that." Remy shook his head. "So sorry that my dearest Emile here never told you, but I'm blind."

"You said you saw a shadow-"

"Only about two percent of people that are diagnosed blind are actually completely unable to see." Remy said simply. "I'm able to see some shadows cast by particularly bright lights."

"That's why my lamp is so bright." Emile said, pointing to the bedside lamp. "I wanted to make sure he knew where I was."

"That's so sweet." Patton said.

"It is, isn't it. The cutie right here just loves having me around." Remy reached his hand over and awkwardly stroked over Emile's face.

"Well no duh. You're like the coolest person ever." Emile told him. "Other than-"

"Stevonnie. Yeah yeah I know, I'll never measure up to a fusion between your favorite ship in a cartoon." Remy sighed.

"Not just any cartoon-"

"The best cartoon." Remy finished yet again. "Alright, I know you all are here for Emile, but I think it's time we leave yeah?"

"Harley Quinn!!" Roman suddenly said in realization. "You and Harley Quinn have the same accent!"

"Oh you're certainly a perceptive one." Remy laughed. "Anyway, cutie if we don't leave soon we're gonna miss it!"

"Miss what?" Emile asked, still mostly focused on the dog.

"Aw damn, that was supposed to be a surprise." Remy sighed. "Welp, guess I better tell ya now, Lilith and Monique are debuting tonight! They invited us!"

"They did?"

"Well, they invited me, and you're coming." Remy shrugged.

"Remy." Emile gave his friend a look.

"Fine fine, they invited you by name and told me I had to bring you, but hey I was told to come so." Remy drawled on. "Let's go."

"Definitely." Emile turned and went to help Remy out the window. "Don't tell Thomas?" He asked the others.

"Promise." Roman nodded vigorously. The others gave gestures of agreement.

"Respect to fellow Regrettes listener." Remus told Remy as Emile helped the boy crawl out.

"Back at ya!" Remy replied.

The two left with the dog and a final wave from Emile before he shimmied the window shut and they ran off into the dimming sky.

"Oh those two are basically the cutest." Roman commented.

"He likes him." Patton said. "A lot."

"Who?"


	18. Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uhm, maybe this fic is getting a little serious. The Rangers fighta familiar face. They think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric, some cute moments 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: kidnapping, pill taking, violence, angst, pining, sympathetic Remus and Janus, light swearing, (let me know if I missed some)

Logan opened the door to the school office with intensity. He was angry. Not extremely, but enough to make his face a little red. He entered the cheap air freshener smelling room and looked for the staff member who was supposed to be at her desk. He didn't see her and huffed in annoyance, choosing to lean against the wall next to the uncomfortable chairs. His hand clenched around the yellow slip his teacher had given him, wrinkling it slightly. Logan could hear the receptionist's voice coming from the back of the office, yelling over the phone. He grimaced at that.

"Lo?"

Logan looked down at the office chair on his left. In it sat Patton, kind sweet Patton wearing a black sweatshirt with the hood up and drawstrings pulled. Logan recognized the hoodie as Dee's.

"Patton?" Logan tilted his head in slight confusion. "What are you doing here? And why are you wearing Dee's sweatshirt?"

"I have a headache and ran out of ibuprofen." Patton said, his voice quiet and his eyes squinting. "Dee and I share second hour so he let me borrow his hoodie to keep the lights out of my eyes."

"Oh. Well that was kind of him." Logan said, now attempting to lessen the redness of his face and calm his demeanor. He found it quite easy to be less angry when Patton was nearby.

"So, what are you doing here?" Patton asked.

"Nothing, I just have to give a note to the receptionist." Logan wasn't lying, that's what he had to do.

"Right." Patton nodded, unconvinced. "And the note you have to give Mrs. Sterling is a yellow slip. Y'know the yellow notes students give the office when they have to come in for detention later."

Logan looked away and hunched over slightly, hiding the note away.

"Lo . . . you did not get in trouble." Patton said in an unbelieving tone, he moved forward in his chair and began to examine Logan's face. "Oh my gosh you got in trouble."

Logan sank further into himself.

"Logan Montgomery are you a bad boy now? Oh gosh, first you tell me to take a break from work, now you're getting detention, getting sent to the office, I don't even know you anymore. Ha, are you gonna start wearing leather jackets and ripped skinny jeans now?" Patton's voice was entirely joking but when he didn't speak for a bit Logan looked down at him. Patton appeared to be pondering his last statement with pinkened cheeks. "That would not be a bad look for you now that I think about it."

Logan looked away and back again, figuring he could explain the situation to Patton in the hopes of clearing his name. "I will be doing none of those things Patton." He couldn't help but notice the slightest of disappointment in Patton's eyes, though he figured it was a trick of the light.

"So what are you really down here for?"

"My second hour is AP world government, and every monday we speak on current world events. I usually do not partake in these discussions as I have no plan to be a social studies teacher in the future." Logan began. "However, Juleka had asked Mrs. Willias if she could speak about the LGBTQ+ protective rights that are being threatened across the world. When Mrs. Willias stated she could. Then Zachary Green decided to ask if he could play 'Devil's Advocate' in this 'debate'."

"Ooh." Patton nodded, no doubt understanding how frustrating speaking to a lesser human like Zachary Green truly was. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing." Logan said defensively. "Nothing at all."

Patton gave Logan a look.

"Fine." Logan rolled his eyes, giving in. "I simply explain every logical fallacy in his arguments that I could find. Not a difficult task as there were a lot of them. However, it appeared Mrs. Willias thought I took it too far."

"In what way?" Patton was really getting Logan to speak every time he put on that teasing 'disappointed dad' tone of voice.

Logan crossed his arms further, but he couldn't help the smug look on his face or the slightly proud twist to his words as he said, "I made him cry."

Patton burst into laughter. Not the usual ellegantly adorable laughter Logan was used to, but a wild howl and snort that bubbled up and fell from his mouth. Patton's new untamed laughter was enough to make Logan himself start chuckling alongside him. When the two stopped they sat in a comfortable silence, at least until Patton sucked in a breath and winced from the pain of his headache.

"Oh, Patton I believe I have some pain relief in my bag if you would rather take that than sit here." Logan offered.

"Thanks Lo. That sounds perfect, anything I can do to not listen to her yell at Susan." Patton said, pulling down on the drawstrings enough so that the hood collapsed over his eyes.

"That's who she's yelling at." Logan said, a little astonished. "Why on Earth would she be yelling at your foster mother?"

"I don't know." Patton groaned.

"Here, I can come back with this later." Logan put the yellow slip in his pocket. "You can have the water from my water bottle."

"Thanks." Patton said, a little muffled by the hood now. "I'll just tell Mrs. Sterling I'm good now." Patton stood and walked over to the desk.

He stood there for a bit, trying to get her attention, but in return all she did was wave her hand dismissively and continue her yelling. Patton turned around, facing Logan, and crossed his arms. 

"My head hurts too much for this." He said.

Logan was about to say something but he felt a vibration from his phone and grabbed it out of his back pocket.

Roman:

Where r u?

"What is it?" Patton asked curiously.

"A text from Roman." Logan said. "He wants to know where I am."

Patton too looked like her wanted to speak, but then he jumped and reached behind himself to his own phone. "Huh, same here."

The two looked at each other, realization dawning on them at the same time.

"No." Logan shook his head.

"Oh come on!" Patton whisper yelled.

"No." Logan said again.

"You've got to be kidding me." Patton brought his hands up to his face.

"No." Logan said firmly.

"It's only been a few days since Baron Odium!" Patton stomped. "What happened to waiting a week or two! Does the Dragon Witch have no consideration for our mental or physical health?"

"No Patton I don't think she does." Logan sighed. "Come on, let's get you some pain relief and head out."

Patton nodded and started walking out with Logan. They arrived at his locker quickly and Logan spun his combination. He grabbed out the small travel bottle and some water and handed both to Patton. While he did so Logan texted Roman. Roman said the others would go ahead and Patton and Logan would just have to catch up. Logan explained the situation to Patton who nodded in understanding and took the pills. The two quickly left the school and got to the parking lot.

"Can you drive Lo?" Patton asked.

"Uh," Logan looked away, vividly remembering his past driving. "Sure Patton."

Logan got in the front seat of Patton's car and was handed the keys. Patton took off the sweatshirt Dee had given him and buckled his seat belt.

"So, Patton, I feel like I should warn you," Logan stated, starting up the car. "I'm not the best of drivers."

"Aww, Lo." Patton waved the warning off. "I'm sure you're not that bad."

Logan sighed. "If you say so."

Logan started driving off toward the town square. The reaction from Patton was immediate. He tried to cover it up by smiling, but Logan saw Patton's white knuckles gripping the armrest.

"Sorry." Logan cringed, trying not to look at Patton.

They arrived in town square quickly and summoned their armor. The two got out of the car and started heading out. They saw Thomas, Roman, Remus, and Dee standing, watching the breach that had been ripped through the middle of the town square. The civilians around had already run out or been helped out by the others. The local news crew was starting to gather and call more journalists. Logan despised the news crews. He knows it's important that the public has as much information as possible, but too many of the news anchors and journalists would ask invasive questions or get in the way of a fight.

"You two good?" Roman asked.

"Yep, yep totally fine." Patton squeaked an octave higher.

"Oh did Blue drive over?" Remus asked.

"Mhm." Patton nodded.

"Oof yeah." Remus laughed.

Logan looked away in annoyance.

"It's okay." Patton lightly tapped Logan's forearm.

"He's so gay he can't drive." Roman laughed too.

"Guys!" Thomas stopped them. "Something's coming."

Logan turned to the breach. He stared at the orange-yellow rip as it got brighter and brighter. Then the monsters started coming out. One by one they flooded the town square, it all appeared eerily similar to the last time they had seen Virgilius. Logan began to wonder if Patton was wearing off on him too much, he was starting to feel.

The witchlings started their onslaught. Patton left his side to grappling hook himself up a building. Roman charged forward, yelling, ever the warrior. Dee and Remus followed him, a little too gleefully for Logan to not be unsettled-damn Patton and his second hand feelings yet again. However, the two were certainly working the best as a duo out of any of them. Their actions were quick, and while not entirely methodical, extremely effective. Remus, easily the strongest of the team, gave Dee a boost so he could flip through the air and sink his daggers in the back of a Witchling before landing on his feet, turning forward and slashing in front of him. Remus had taken his time to summon his morning star and throw it at the nearest witchling, then run after it, pull it out of the witchling's chest, and go for another.

Logan summoned his own weapon and waited back with Thomas. The lance was balanced well in his hands and he gripped it fiercely, waiting for Roman's signal. Finally, Roman had made his way to the breach and shouted for action. Logan gave Thomas a nod and the two ran into the fray of Witchlings. With Thomas' cover Logan was able to make his way to Roman where the two began attempting to thin out the monsters around the breach.

The monsters finally seemed to be dwindling in numbers and soon Logan and Roman were joined by Thomas, Remus and Dee around the breach while Patton used his bow and arrow to finish off the scattered Witchlings that were left. When it seemed the flow of monsters had stopped Patton joined them down below and Remus had his fun chasing after the last two left.

"Pat, what are you feeling?" Roman asked Patton as he strode over to them.

"Feeling?" Patton asked, breathing a little hard. "Right, uh, oh. Okay, I'm really not sure if you guys understand that this isn't a superpower. Like I can't just stand here and know every feeling everyone around us has. I'm not magic! It's a process of looking at people's expressions, body positions, tensity, and just knowing the person's habits. Ow!"

Logan rushed over to Patton and gently held his forearm. "Is your head okay?"

"Whoa whoa, what's wrong with his head?" Janus asked. "We can't have a Ranger with a messed up head."

"Uhhm I had a concussion!" Remus yelled as he joined the rest.

"We can't have Patton with a messed up head. Your head is already screwed up as it is," Remus made a little whine at the comment. "Oh you know I wouldn't want it any other way."

"Ugh, softie." Remus chuckled, putting an arm around Dee's hips and pulling him close.

"Oh my god we get it! You two are happy and dating and blaaaaa!! Just stop for two damn seconds please. We're literally in the middle of a fight!" Roman exclaimed.

"I don't know RoRo, I think this fight is pretty over. No more witchlings, so far no general, what else is there?" Remus asked rhetorically.

"The breach." Thomas stated pointing to its ominous presence.

"Right, right, right." Remus nodded. "Whatever. There's gonna be like a few more witchlings then we out of here."

"Logan move!!" Patton suddenly shouted, running and shoving Logan out of the way.

Logan didn't see what had happened but he was suddenly on the ground with Patton laying on top of him and he didn't quite know what to do about that. The two sort of laid there for a second too long untilPatton gathered his bearings and hopped up. Not making eye contact with Logan. He did however reach a hand down and help the Blue Ranger up.

"Oh god." Logan heard Roman say.

"What happened?" Logan asked.

"Look." Janus said, pointing to where Logan had previously been standing.

On the cement Logan saw a scorch mark that was all too familiar. The Rangers all immediately went back to back and looked around. Logan was silent and tense, and he wasn't alone. Then the breach started flickering violently. Everyone turned to it, weapons drawn, prepared. They all knew who was going to be walking through that portal. Virgilius.

"Pat, what's the call?" Roman asked. "It's your choice. You ready?"

Patton didn't respond. He gripped his bow tighter and audibly picked up his breathing. When Virgilius stepped out of the orange-yellow breach Logan heard Patton's breathing hitch. Logan himself felt the waves of shock hit him hard. It had felt like so long since seeing the villain and his appearance was sudden. Logan forgot that fighting Virgilius often left him with a sense of uneasy, but now that they were back, it felt like the sense had doubled.

"The plan's on." Patton said.

"Are you sure?" Thomas asked.

"Definitely." Patton summoned his arrow and drew it back. "Let's save them."

The Rangers lept into action. Their goal: restrain or weaken Virgilius enough for Patton to get to him. Roman and Thomas were on restraining duty, Remus and Dee on weaken duty, Patton on staying alive while also talking to Virgilius, and Logan on protecting Patton. Remus and Dee launched their attack before the other two who were engaging with Virgilius. They both threw their weapons at Virgilius who dodged and countered while Roman and Thomas went behind and tried to get close to them. Virgilius however simply went on to teleport from area to area. Logan figured making him weary would be the easiest and most efficient tactic, then Roman and Thomas could restrain.

"Virgilius!" Patton yelled. "We want to help you!"

Logan gripped his spear and made sure he was in between any fire blast from Virgilius and Patton who was multitasking between finding a good vantage point and trying to calm Virgilius down.

"Really we do! We know you're not like the other generals! We know you're good! You don't want to hurt these people!!" Patton called.

Virgilius didn't give an audible response. Only teleported away from the onslaught of attacks that Remus, Dee, Roman, and Thomas were giving them. They reappeared and immediately shot a blast of fire at Patton that Logan jumped in front of and deflected successfully with his lance. Logan saw as Dee's daggers sank into Virgilius' arms and they recoiled in pain, growling slightly and turning their attention to the other four who continued with the plan.

"Listen to us!! Please! I mean it when I say that you have a lot of good in you!" Patton yelled from behind Logan. "Sorry, Lo this is gonna hurt a little." Patton told him, just before wrapping an arm around Logan's waist and pulling the both of them up to the roof of a building.

Logan's feet landed next to Patton's and the two pulled apart.

"Any new feelings?" Logan asked.

"What?!" Patton whipped around and faced Logan who gave him a confused look. "Oh you meant about the fight!"

"Yes." Logan nodded. "Yes I did."

Patton paused. "Something's uhm, I-I don't know how to say this but something about this feels off."

"Isn't that no different than before?" Logan asked.

"No, no, that was an unnatural, weird, jittery, anxious feeling. This is a different kind of off." Patton told him. "This is more like fear. A lot of fear. Look at the way they're holding themself. Their chin is up, their shoulders are tense, they're less concerned with the hood, and their fighting, it's so aggressive. Everything about them is trying to tell me that they have confidence, but for some reason, I don't believe that. Virgilius never tried to give off a false sense of self-security. Why start now?"

Logan looked over the edge to the others who were still locked in battle. They didn't seem to be making enough progress.

"I'm not sure Patton." Logan said.

"I should help the others. This fight isn't going to be over any time soon if we don't wear Virgilius down faster." Patton said.

"Patton, you need to keep yourself safe." Logan reminded.

"Well that's what I've got you for." Patton said, summoning another arrow. "Keep me safe."

Logan couldn't help but stare as Patton's breathing stilled to a careful rhythm, then he saw an opening and took it. The arrow sunk right into Virgilius' leg. The general didn't make a noise, but they did turn to Patton and Logan on the roof and send a large ball of flames careening for them. Logan grabbed Patton and pulled him down, using the ledge to shield him while Logan deflected it yet again. Patton hopped right back up and the two repeated this process several times.

"I think we're finding our groove." Patton laughed from where he sat.

"What?" Logan asked.

"Nothing." Patton nudged Logan with his elbow. "How are they doing down there?"

Logan gave the others a glance, it actually seemed like wearing Virgilius down was working. The fire was less powerful, their moves were sloppier, and while the others weren't doing much better, they also overpowered Virgilius in numbers.

"It's going well, I think you should distract Virgilius again." Logan told him.

"It's not so much a distraction as it is a plea to join us."

"Same tactic, multiple benefits." Logan shrugged.

"Virgilius!!" Patton yelled. "Think of Eddie and Richie!! They left everything they knew!! All to be together, to be truly happy! You can do the same!! You can leave for Earth, you can join us, you can find friends, you can find love!! Just like they did."

Logan looked to Patton, impressed.

"I read that fanfiction." Patton explained. "It was surprisingly good. Ha. Get it? It? Like the book and-"

"Yes I do." Logan stopped him.

"Yeah." Patton giggled. "Hmm, is-is it weird that they aren't talking?"

"It is." Logan said. "At this point in the fight they would have already set up a date with Roman. I haven't heard them speak at all."

"I don't like that." Patton mumbled. "Okay, what are we thinking? I say, get off the roof now, you go over and help the others, then I go in and finish the deal."

"I don't like the idea of leaving your side."

"That's sweet Lo, but not the time for being a romantic."

"I wasn't trying to be." Logan stammered out, he could feel the heat in his ears rising alarmingly fast.

"Effortlessly charming. Of course, why wouldn't you be?" Patton sighed. "Oh well, let's get down there and get Virgilius to join our side. You ready?"

"Decidedly not." Logan said truthfully. "But, I don't have much of a choice. Let's finish this."

Patton nodded and grabbed Logan's waist again, lowering the two to the ground. Logan was once again on the slightly crumbled cement and he surveyed, looking for the best area to strike from. Logan found it and gave Patton a simple hand signal. Patton in return tightened his grip a little on Logan's waist before releasing him with encouragement.

Logan knew he couldn't think of what Patton had said on the roof and before. However, his cursed mind couldn't ignore the little signs, the things Patton had been doing. All the evidence pointed only one way and it made Logan positively giddy at the thought. Using this spur of excitement, Logan charged in, joining the other Rangers. Roman and Thomas were focusing on keeping Virgilius from teleporting while Remus and Dee went on the offensive and continued to weaken them. Logan put his energy towards keeping Virgilius from thinking about where Patton was.

Then an idea formed in Logan's mind. "Red, Black, go after their legs." He told the two.

Without hesitation the two followed directions. Logan knew he had to somehow get Patton to understand his plan without telling him directly, seeing as that would ruin everything.

"Red, Black," Logan got closer to the two and tried to keep his words between the three of them, "you'll know when you get the signal, so when you do you need to run. Got it?"

The two gave Logan an affirming nod and went on. Logan made his way over to Remus and Dee and repeated his instructions. They too went along with Logan's plan. Logan joined them, quickly cycling through ways he can subtly communicate his plan with Patton as he helped with the attack. Logan soon figured they didn't have much time and just went with the first thing that came to mind.

"Pink!!!" He yelled. "It's okay to get angry!!"

No response. Logan didn't have time to turn around and see if Patton understood.

"And sometimes you need to have an explosive outburst to let it out!!!" Logan added. Hoping badly that Patton knew what to do.

"I think I'm feeling an outburst coming up right . . . about . . . now!!!" Patton shouted.

All the Rangers ran in separate directions as fast as they could. Behind him Logan heard a large explosion go off and the air push him forwards, almost off his feet. He continued to run all the way to Patton who still held up his bow, waiting for the dust to clear. When Logan reached Patton's side he turned around, hoping to see the Pink Ranger was successful. The pink dust finally settled, and Logan could practically hear the gasps of every Ranger as they saw Virgilius sitting on his knees. Not fading into dust. Just weak.

"Patton." Logan said, a little out of breath. "Feeling?" He hoped his question got across.

Patton examined Virgilius with precision."They still seem scared." Patton responded shakily. "But there's still something that's off."

"You don't have to do this." Logan told him. "We can just restrain them. We'll find a way."

"No, no, Lo we agreed that this was the plan and it's what I'm gonna do." Patton said, still shaking. "I have to believe that this will work. I believe in them."

"Okay." Logan nodded. "Then I believe in you. You can do this."

Patton ran. He raced over to Virgilius as fast as he could, reaching out. Logan, Roman, Thomas, Dee, and Remus closed ranks, following Patton and making a semi-circle around the Pink Ranger and fallen villain.

"Virgilius." Patton said softly. "Take my hand. We're going to get you out of this. We're going to protect you."

Virgilius didn't move, just looked up, face still obscured to Logan.

"I know this is a lot, but we can't just let you fight like this, fight for her, when we know that you are better than this and better on our team." Patton told him, offering a hand. "We want to be your friend."

Virgilius shifted. Their shoulders readjusted, their back straightened, and the hood fell from their head. Exposing their face to the Rangers. Logan had almost forgotten how Patton described them. Sharp features, sharper expression. Logan couldn't help but feel unnerved. Logan could tell Patton was smiling. Patton thought he was getting to them.

"We're here for you." Patton assured.

Virgilius' hand shot up, wrapping around Patton's neck dangerously tight, choking him. Patton gagged and writhed in the grasp. All the Rangers immediately got back into battle stance, unsure if they should engage. Logan pointed his lance at Virgilius, confused but unafraid. Then Virgilius stood, lifting Patton off the ground with his height and strength alone, then looked over at the other Rangers, sending waves of fear into Logan's neck. He didn't waver however, darting his eyes between Patton and Virgilius.

That was when Virgilius' form began to shift. They lowered in height by a little less than an inch. Their fallen hood became bright green hair, their body took a woman's form, wearing a black corset and boots. Virgilius' expressionless face became hardened and angry, though Logan's first thought was that it was forced.

"Oh shit." Remus remarked.

Astromania, though she was apparently green now, looked to her left, eyeing the hoards of news reporters and journalists. The cameras flashed, taking in the scene. She sighed.

"Humans are terrible." She snarled.

"Put him down!" Thomas yelled at her.

"No, I don't think I will." Astromania rolled her eyes.

"What is with you generals and choking us?!" Remus asked.

"Shut up Remus." Roman snarled. "You let him go!"

"They'll thank me one day." Astromania said, her grip on Patton tightened. "They will thank me."

Logan dared to look at Patton. He was struggling, though he was losing his ability to breath fairly quickly, and was clearly getting weaker. Logan felt a pain stab at his chest as he watched. Logan felt frozen. He didn't know what to do. He just stared, hoping, waiting for a way to get out of this.

"You'll all thank me one day.." Astromania seethed. "You'll thank the Dragon Witch."

She dropped Patton to the ground. The boy collapsed, gasping and coughing. Logan moved forward wanting nothing but to have Patton in his arms. The Pink Ranger weakly reached a hand out to the others, and just as Logan was about to grasp it, Astromania brought the whip she had summoned down around Logan's wrist, then threw him into the other Rangers. Knocking them all to the ground in a pile. Logan hit someone roughly before he was met with the ground, and as he scrambled out of his shock he watched Astromania bring her whip down on the ground, a loud crack exploding from the impact. A breach opened on the cement, glowing bright, and it swallowed Patton and Astromania before closing just as fast as it had opened.

The only thing left of the two in the town square was the echo of Astromania's whip and Patton's final cry of "Lo!!!"

Logan felt sick.


	19. Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the boys try to move forward from what's happened, but a dear friend has gone missing, and I'm not talking about Patton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Janus centric, Remy and Emile are back, Remy and Emile’s friends
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: mentions of kidnapping, angst, yelling, fighting, PDA, running away/going missing, food mentions

Dee didn't even remember how they got to Thomas' house. Suddenly he was just walking up to Thomas' front door, Ranger suit off and dried tears on his face. Dee felt Remus' arm around him and decided to bury himself into the feeling. Remus looked like he was in a similar state as Dee, confused, scared, and unable to fully understand anything that was going on. In front of the two Thomas had walked up to the front door and was trying to unlock it with his key. He kept fumbling with it, rushing to get inside. Finally he got it unlocked and opened the door, Thomas ran inside and immediately went down the hallway to Emile's room.

"Emile?" He called.

Dee and Remus walked inside and sat down on the couch, still folded into each other. Roman joined the two on the furniture, he grabbed one of the throw pillows and gripped it harshly, almost using it as a shield, though Dee didn't know what from. Logan closed the door behind him and started pacing. No part of him was still. He was mouthing words, shaking his hands or running them through his hair, his breathing was uneven, and he couldn't keep looking in the same place for more than a moment.

Sniffling that broke the deathly silent room and Dee turned to his right. Remus let out a jittery breath and his tears began to fall. He was shaking violently, breathing erratically, and his grip on Dee became slightly painful. Dee turned to his boyfriend and began wiping at his tears to stop the flow, but he only succeeded in making himself cry once again.

"He's gone." Remus cried quietly. "He's-he's-god Dee he's-go-gon-"

"Don't." Dee shook his head. "No, no, don't do that."

"He's right." Logan said behind Dee.

Dee turned around and looked at Logan. The boy's expression was deadly sharp, but it over compensated. Logan was vulnerable and he didn't want anyone to know.

"Logan, I-I know he's right but right now-"

"Right now we need to be realists and in reality Pa-he is gone." Logan told him harshly, but his waver over Patton's name betrayed him.

"Logan sto-" Roman sighed.

"No!" Logan snapped. "No, no, no, don't tell me to stop. Don't you dare! He is gone and we need to accept that! We don't have any clue how to get him back or-or if-"

Logan didn't need to finish, the 'if he can come back' was well implied.

"You're doing it again." Roman said softly.

"Emile?" Thomas's quiet voice asked from down the hall.

"Doing what?" Logan sneered.

"Trying to speed up the grieving process so that it hurts less. You did the exact same thing when your grandma died." Roman told him. "It's not good for you. You know that."

"That's not what I'm doing." Logan denied.

"Yes you are." Roman wouldn't look up. "You're trying to rush to the acceptance stage when there's no point. He's not de-he'll come back. We'll get him back so don't act like he's-" Roman stopped himself. "Logan, you're trying to get past this so fast so it doesn't hurt. You do remember what happened last time right?"

"This is nothing like last time Roman!" Logan yelled.

"Yes it is." Roman cried quietly. "You're moving on so fast and acting like this doesn't affect you and everyone else is being erratic, but you know the second you're alone everything's gonna come crashing down and you're gonna spiral, and everything is gonna go to shit again!"

"It's already gone to shit Roman!!" Logan shouted. "He's been kidnapped! That's pretty shitty if you ask me!! Dwelling on the 'grieving process' isn't going to bring him back nor is it productive!!"

Dee watched Remus' reaction as Logan and Roman continued yelling. Every last word was met with a wince and it only made the tears fall faster. Remus had never looked more afraid. Dee could tell his boyfriend wasn't with them exactly. He was thinking of something else entirely and he was spiralling down a dangerous path. Dee didn't know what but he knew the yelling was only making it worse.

"Logan." Dee stood and spoke with a hard tone-he just needed Logan to stop.

Thomas walked out of the hallway and started down to the basement. "Emile?"

"Shut up Dee! Don't talk to me!!" Logan huffed. "This is your fault anyway!!"

That got them all to shut up.

"What?" Dee asked, feeling the anger build in his throat.

"You heard me!! This was yours and Remus' plan and I never liked it from the beginning!! It put him in immediate danger and I knew something bad would come of it but did any of you listen to me?!?! No!!!" Logan told him. "This is your fault!!!"

"He agreed to it." Dee defended himself. "He could have not gone through with the plan, he could have said no, but he believed in it! There was no way any of us could have known that something like this would-"

"Patton knew something was off from the beginning, but you and Remus convinced him that this plan was foolproof when clearly it wasn't!! And now he's paid the price for your mistake!! This is your fault!!" Logan exclaimed. "If you all had just listened to me, we could have improved the plan tremendously or, better yet, not gone through with the plan at all and kept him here!!!"

"Logan-"

"No!! He would still be here if all of you had just listened to me!!! God dammit!! He would be right here but no!! You and Remus convinced him this was a good idea!!!" Logan yelled at Dee.

"We didn't do shit Logan!!!" Dee retorted. "We all came up with it together!! This wasn't just mine or Remus' plan, this was all of ours and you sure as hell could have added in your own ideas but we couldn't trust that!! Your crush on him meant you wouldn't take any risks with him and we couldn't have that!!! We took a risk and it didn't go as planned!!! I'm sorry okay!! I'm sorry!! But this yelling and shit isn't helping anyone!!!"

"Don't even try to blame him-"

"I'm not blaming anyone Logan!!! I'm not blaming anyone for him getting taken!!! But I am sure as hell blaming you for standing here and acting like you're better than us and telling me everything is my fault!!! I won't let you do that bullshit when instead we could be dealing with this like mature freaking people and start working on a way to get him back!!!"

"Oh maybe our new plan should also involve sacrificing one of our team members!!!" Logan shouted.

"God dammit Logan!!! Don't even-"

"Guys." Remus stopped them, grabbing Dee's arm and pulling on him for attention.Dee and Logan both stopped and turned to Remus.

"Oh my god, Thomas." Roman exclaimed racing over to said man who stood in the basement doorway. "Thomas what-"

Dee looked to Thomas and Roman, seeing the tears that streamed down Thomas' face and raced over to the two along with Logan and Remus.

"Emile's gone." He told them.

"Thomas."

"He isn't here! I don't know where he is!!" Thomas cried. "He's not here and he won't answer me on the phone!"

"Shit." Remus said quietly before striding off to Emile's room.

"He's not there Remus I checked I-" Thomas choked out.

Dee comforted the man as he heard Remus open Emile's door and then some quiet before Remus called them to come to the room. The group shuffled over to the room, being careful of Thomas' state. When they got there, Dee saw the room looked very similar to when he'd last seen it, save for the lack of broken items in the corner. He did however notice that Remus was currently tapping away at Emile's laptop. He went over to see what Remus was doing and saw that he was trying to guess Emile's password.

"Remus stop, that's his personal stu-"

Logan moved to Remus and Dee ushering them both aside before quickly typing in a password and gaining access.

"Shit." Logan said.

"What?" Roman asked.

"He was watching live news. He saw everything." Logan stated, his voice beginning to shake.

"Oh god." Dee looked to Thomas.

"Look at his desk." Remus said. Dee did. "Everything is off and the window is open."

"He went out the window then." Logan looked away, before pointing to Thomas. "Remy. Emile's alone in his home, why doesn't he just go out the front?"

"Remy isn't really allowed at our house. Renette doesn't want him to be seen around us because of government business. He always goes to Emile's window or the backdoor." Thomas explained between sobs.

"Okay, Emile's with Remy. That's something." Roman said. "We know who he's with. Do you know where Remy and Emile go when they sneak off?"

"No." Thomas admitted. "I-I don't really think I need to. He's really open about everything so I don't need him to tell me where he and Remy go. I-I trust him and-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay."Roman soothed. "I doubt Renette trusts Remy as much as Emile. Call her, and ask her if she knows where Remy is, yeah?"

"O-okay." Thomas nodded, pulling his phone out. The boys waited as Thomas pulled up Renette's contact and called, getting an answer immediately and putting his phone on speaker.

"Thomas? Thomas I'm on my way right now, we have to-"

"Renette, Emile's gone." Thomas said.

"What?!" Rennette exclaimed.

"We're pretty sure he's with Remy." Logan told her.

"With Remy." Renette trailed off. "Hang on." They heard some shuffling and then a second phone ringing before it was answered by another woman though her voice was a little harder to make out.

"Nettie?" The woman asked.

"Renae, I need you to find Remy. I don't think he's at home." Renette told her frantically.

"What?" Renae asked. "No he's home, he's just in his room."

"Check!" Renette exclaimed.

"Okay, I'm going." She replied. It was quiet for a moment. "Oh shiiiiiit. Yeah he's not here."

"Dammit!" Renette stated. "Okay, thanks baby, don't worry we'll find him, just sit tight and tell Roland what's going on."

"Okay." Renae responded. "Stay safe. Love you."

"Love you too." Renette ended the other call. "Thomas do you have 'find my phone' on Emile's phone? Life 360? Any of those tracking apps?"

"No, no I don't." Thomas told her.

"Damn your son for being a trustful little prick." Renette cursed.

"What about you with Remy's phone?" Roman asked.

"He doesn't have his phone." Renette explained. "He snuck out a while ago and he won't get his phone back for another couple days."

"God." Dee sighed. "Okay, do either of you know anywhere that those two may be?"

"No." The two parents said at the same time.

"Okay, how about, we get in my Jeep, and drive around town looking for them." Roman suggested.

"That's not a bad idea." Logan said. "Going out to look for them will increase our chances of finding the two. However, Thomas you should stay here."

"What? No." Thomas looked at Logan confused. "No I have to go with you."

"No, you should stay here. Your state could only worsen while we're out looking, plus if they come back here we don't want them to find an empty home." Logan told him calmly. "Not to mention Roman doesn't have enough room in his car."

"I-" Thomas looked like he wanted to protest but instead he shook his head before nodding and beginning to leave the room. "I'll wait here."

"Thank you." Logan and Roman helped him walk to the couch before they left for the driveway and got into Roman's Jeep.

"Wait." Thomas stopped Remus and Dee. "Tell Emile that he's not in trouble. I'm not mad or anything, I just want him home."

"We will." Dee told Thomas with the best smile he could manage before grasping Remus gently and pulling him along.

He looked at his boyfriend's face and found him to be utterly broken by what Thomas had said. Dee and Remus got in the back of the jeep while Logan and Roman sat in the front. Roman started the car and began driving off. Dee carefully reached over and took Remus' hand. He held his boyfriend gently until Remus gripped his hand harder and looked Dee in the eyes.

"Don't do that." Remus said. "I'm not going to break. Don't be all gentle with me."

"Remus, a lot is happening right now." Dee tried to reason. "I just don't want to overwhelm-"

"Do either of you have any ideas as to where they might be?" Logan asked, clearly not paying attention to the scene behind him.

"No." Dee told him, seething slightly.

"I'm waiting for a text back but I may have something from our group chat." Remus told him.

"Group chat?" Roman asked.

"Yeah." Remus said, as if that was all the explanation that was needed.

"What group chat Remus?" Logan urged.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Dee, you remember that drill we had where we got trapped in a room with no teacher and a bunch of freshmen?"

"Yeah." Dee told him, not entirely sure of where this was going.

"Well, turns out, a lot of those kids were Emile's friends. Seems like most of the freshmen class is friends with Emile. Anyway, Emile introduced me to a few of them and now I have a group on Snapchat of like twenty freshmen."

"What on Earth is it for?" Roman asked, very concerned.

"I just help them out with stuff." Remus shrugged.

"Like what?"

"You know, parents, friends, where to get food, where to get cheap clothes, getting them tutors, coming out, how to shoplift, that kind of thing." Remus told him. "They call me their uncle."

"You teach children how to shoplift?"

"Chill out, they're like fourteen or fifteen okay." Remus waved him off. "Besides, it's not illegal."

"Shoplifting is illegal." Logan said.

"Only if you get caught."

"No." Logan told Remus. "No."

"Whatever. Look, I just texted them asking if they might know where Emile is." Remus said. "At least I'm helping."

"Any response?" Dee asked.

"Not yet, I'll check again though." Remus pulled his phone out of his back pocket with some shuffling and began checking. "Uhm, a few options. They could either be at that weird cafe you like Roman, by the train tracks, or with their friend Monique."

"Alright." Roman got into the right turn lane and signaled he was turning right. "Let's check the cafe first, it's just down the street here."

Roman only had to drive a little bit further before parking the car and having everyone hop out and enter the cafe. They checked around the mostly empty place. However, one thing was clear when Dee entered. Everyone in there was scared. They weren't scared of the boys, but they were scared of something. The air was tense and the people were whispering or talking lowly. As he passed a small group he caught the words 'Pink' and the question 'What's going to happen?'. It was unnerving to say the least. The whole time Dee wanted out. Roman went up to the counter and asked the workers if they'd seen Emile but none of them had. Dee could tell he wasn't the only one of the group that wanted out of there.

When the group convened by the door and all came up empty they decided to go back to Roman's car and start off for the train tracks. However, as they got halfway to the car Remus was startled and grabbed his phone answering it quickly.

"Hello?!" He asked frantically. "Oh my god. Wait, wait, wait, let me put you on speaker." Remus did as he said he would and gathered the group. "Okay guys, this is Monique." They gave some greetings.

"Hi." She said. "Uh, so Remus I know where Emile and Remy are." Monique told them, clearly hushed.

"Thank god." Dee sighed.

"Are they with you?" Logan asked.

"Yes." She told them.

"Okay, we're on ou-"

"Monique." Roman stopped his twin. "Is it okay if we come and get them. Their parents are worried and want the two home."

It was quiet on the other end.

"Okay." She finally said. "You can come get them. I'll text Remus the address."

"Thank you." Roman almost laughed in relief and joy. "Thank you so much."

The others also gave their thanks.

"Of course. Just, be gentle." She told them. "And uh, I'm gonna send a list of things to bring with you okay?"

"Of course, we'll get anything you guys need." Roman told her.

The call ended after that and they clamored into the car. When Remus received the address he told Logan who put it into his own phone so he could give Roman directions.

"And the list of things we need to bring?" Roman asked.

"Hang on, she's still typing." Remus put a finger up. "Okay, wow, uhm, so stop at the next gas station."

"Okay." Roman nodded. It was quiet until they got into the gas station parking lot, where Remus began relaying the items they needed to buy.

"Four cans of Razzleberry Peace Tea, two cans of Just Peachy Peace Tea, two cans of Hello Mango Peace Tea, one can of Snoberry Peace Tea, band-aids but the ones with the characters on them, four bags of Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn, and pretzel M&Ms." Remus said, holding back some form of laughter.

"You've gotta be kidding." Roman sighed.

"Hey, you're the one that told the children they could get whatever they wanted." Dee chuckled. "Alright let's go."

The group got in and out of the gas station with their items and a few strange looks from the worker, and were on their way to Monique's. They were quiet, save for the rustling of the car itself. Dee gripped Remus' hand as usual, happy to see the appreciation in his boyfriend's eyes. When they entered the exceedingly fancy looking neighborhood Dee was reminded of how fancy and high class Remus' own neighborhood was. Roman pulled into one of the identical looking houses and turned off the car. They all waited, not sure, until a girl Dee recognized from one of his AP classes stepped out to greet them.

Remus got out quickly and rushed over to her, giving her a quick hug.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm good." She told him, her voice familiar enough for Dee to note that this was Monique. "They're inside. They know you're all here. Just, like I said, be patient."

"We will." Dee told her.

Monique led the group up the porch and into her home. Roman and Logan carrying the bags from the convenience store behind them, Remus and Dee entered the living room to find both Remy, Emile, and another girl lounging around in silence. None of the children paid them any attention.

"Emmy is it them?" Remy asked.

"Yeah." Emile told him. Dee tried to pick up the tone he had used but he said it so quickly it was hard to discern.

"Sweet, hand me the stuff!" Remy reached a grabby hand out. "Gimme the popcorn and a Razzleberry. Oh, and give Emile one of the peach ones."

Roman nodded and reached in his bag for the items before reaching into Logan's bag for the popcorn. He walked over to the kids and handed them over. Lilith and Monique went over to Roman and Logan's bags and started grabbing their own snacks. Emile opened his and Remy's tea, handed it to Remy, then took a sip of his own. He continued to sip at it frequently whereas Remy started chugging it swiftly.

"Hey you two." Roman said softly to Emile and Remy. "We've uh, gotta get you home."

It was quiet for a beat.

"Emile, your dad wants you to know that he's not mad. You're not in trouble. He just-he just wants you home." Dee told the freshman.

Emile's already puffy pink eyes watered, he looked up at Dee for something, and Dee's own expression had apparently given it. Emile wiped at his eyes with his palm and sunk further into himself. He took a few longer sips of his drink.

"Please Emile." Roman took a few steps towards the kid. "We-we're-we'll find a way. I promise we'll get him back to you. I know that this is a lot but your dad needs you and you need him. Just come with us back to your place. Renette is already on her way there and we're going to come up with a plan to get him home."

"Can you say his name?" Emile asked.

"What?" Roman looked taken aback.

"Any of you? Have any of you been able to say his name?" Emile looked at the Rangers, almost accusingly. None of them responded. "I can. Patton. Patton is his name. Patton. And he's gone. He was taken away. Patton's gone. How am I supposed to believe that any of you can save him when none of you have even said his name!"

Dee felt the world had stopped in its tracks. The blood drained from his face as he took in just how real that statement felt.

"Em." Remy broke the silence. "That-that's really not fair to say."

"Oh it's not?!" Emile snapped. "It's not fair to say huh? What would you know about fair Remy? How in the world am I supposed to believe that they can save Patton, the one and only true constant in my life that was just ripped away from me and there was nothing I could do about it! None of them can summon their zords, none of them were able to save him then, they know nothing but we're supposed to blindly trust them to protect us? I'm sick of it! I've lived in a constant state of fear that my dad would be gone in an instant because he's a Power Ranger! I watched as Patton's parents, and Thomas' friends, and my friend's were taken away from us! Then, Patton becomes a ranger, the one person who understood what it felt like, became yet another reason I can't sleep! And apparently rightfully so because now, he's gone!!"

Emile was breathing strangely by the time he stopped, tears cascaded down his face and Dee felt helpless to stop it. He knew Emile, and he had a right to be angry, but he knew Emile would feel bad about this later so Dee didn't take the scathing remarks to heart. The pain that Dee felt in his chest came from watching Emile cry and being unable to truly help him.

"Oh no." Remy said. "Em, Emmy, hey. Em, please you need to breathe. Lilith his inhaler!"

The girl Dee guessed must have been Lilith rushed out of the room and returned with a bag that she began to dig through until pulling out an inhaler and quickly handing it to Emile. The freshman put it up to his mouth and tried to steady his breathing, pressing the button on the top.

"Emmy you've had a lot of those drugs today, you gotta stop doing this to yourself." Remy told his friend a little quieter.

"Not very easy to control Remy." Emile replied, still not fully back to normal.

"I know." Remy rubbed soothing circles on his friend's hand. "Look, Em, you have to deal with a lot of tough shit, but you're strong. You're so strong and that's how you'll get through this."

"I don't want to be strong." Emile said. "I don't want to be strong and just be the happy little kid that brightens everyone's bad days with some comment or some cute thing. I don't want everyone relying on me. I just want to cry and be upset and not have everyone relying on me to stay the happy little kid!"

"Well, Em, then you don't have to. Don't be that person. Go through this the way you want to, and the way you need to. Just, as long as it's healthy." Remy told his friend.

Emile didn't respond with words, he just sank into Remy's side and cried some more. Lilith and Monique walked over to the two and wrapped their arms comfortingly around the pair, soon to be followed by Roman and Remus. Dee watched the scene unfold with a heartwarming feeling, but he knew this really was just the beginning of the hardships they would all face over however long Patton was gone.

"Dee." Logan got his attention. "I'm sorry for what I said. I was angry and sad and I lashed out at all of you, but what I said to you and Remus was not fair."

"It's okay Logan." Dee told him. "Really, I get it. I-I know how you feel about Patton, but I didn't feel that way about anyone until Remus. I love him and if something like that ever happened to him I-" Dee stopped himself from choking up further and cleared his throat. "I would've probably had an even worse reaction."

"Okay." Emile piped up, now giving everyone a watery smile. "I think I'm ready to go home."

The others pulled away from him and gave their encouraging words. Emile helped Remy up and handed him his cane. The two said exhausted goodbyes to Monique and Lilith and started out the door, being sure to grab more peace tea. Roman's car, having the strangest interior for a Jeep, was able to fit them all because of the bench seat in the front and back. Roman, Logan, and Dee all got in the front so Remus could sit in the back with the freshmen. No one spoke during the drive save for the faint whispers that Emile and Remy exchanged between sips of their drinks.

Once arriving at Thomas' home Dee saw the familiar black car that belonged to Renette. Emile finished off his tea and hopped out. Dee watched while he too was exiting the car as Thomas ran out of the house with Renette and he wrapped his son in his arms. Emile practically jumped for his dad. Wrapped his arm around him tightly and visibly sobbing. Remy had joined the scene and stood facing the slightly wrong way before his mother pulled her own son into a hug. Dee was standing in front of the Jeep, smiling slightly, but not able to really appreciate what was happening. Patton's kidnapping loomed over them all. He was however slightly distracted by it when Remus walked behind him and put his arms around Dee's waist. Dee smiled at the feeling and placed his hands over Remus'.

"I love you too." Remus said softly.


	20. 💖🍆🍑💖

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes that's the chapter name. Our boys are trying to recover and Dee has come to some conclusions yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Remus centric, a lot of fluff becuase that’s my coping mechanism, oh boy there’s some mood twists, Megan Kekkone, kissing, affection, pda, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, very brief mention of homicide, mentions of dead/kidnapped characters, angst, brief mention of death, somewhat sexual talk but like barely

Remus couldn't tell what he hated more. Renette's pacing or her silence. Both were unnerving to say the least. She just walked back and forth before the Rangers-well, the ones that remained at least-her phone continued to light up and buzz and ring on the table but she didn't even hesitate. She just put her fingers to her temples and muttered to herself while she paced. As Remus watched he felt Dee's breathing against his neck and his arms tighten around Remus' waist. Remus let his own body rest on Dee's on the bean bag. His hands on top of Dee's comfortingly. He was starting to get sick while watching Renette pace so he looked around at the others.

Roman and Logan sat at the table. His brother had an arm around his friend and the two were talking about a possible plan to get Patton back, but they were so drained of energy their planning felt more like hopeful yawning than anything else. Thomas wasn't even in the basement. Remus didn't know where he was but he felt uneasy about Thomas not being there. He sensed the whole room was uneasy and on edge and more, but when Remus looked over to the bright pink inflatable couch he couldn't help but let a little smile creep onto his face. Emile and Remy laid next to each other, smushed on the couch, taking sips of Peace Tea and handfuls of popcorn as they whispered to each other and giggled.

"Hey." Remus whispered to Dee before placing a kiss in his hair. "Look over there."

"Mmm." Dee grunted but lifted his head. "Oh."

Remus looked at Dee's face. His eyes were still puffy from crying and his face was a little red but as he looked over at Remy and Emile his eyes softened. He even smiled a little. Remus liked that look. He felt Dee's arms around him tighten just a little bit and he welcomed the feeling.

"Alright." Renette finally stopped her pacing to look at the crew. "First and foremost, someone needs to go get Thomas."

Remus looked around the room and figured he might as well, so he gave Dee a smile before standing up. Dee let his arms fall against the bean bag, giving Remus an upset look.

"Thanks Remus. Just hurry, we really need to get you all home and I've gotta get through everything I need to say." Renette rushed him up the basement steps.

As Remus got to the top floor he began meandering around, searching for Thomas. He called out a few times but received no response. Remus figured he must be in his room so he walked down the hallway, turned right, and began making his way to Thomas' door. Luckily for him it was slightly open and he walked in, there he saw Thomas, sitting on the floor at the bottom of the bed, clutching a picture frame, and mumbling.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I failed. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whispered. He was mostly apologizing, but occasionally he was lamenting his failures. Remus was having none of it.

"Thomas." He said, trying to be soft. "C'mon, Renette needs us downstairs so we can all talk."

Thomas nodded and began wiping at his face. Remus walked over to him and offered a hand to help him up. Thomas took it and stood, still on the verge of sobbing, but he held himself together. The older man placed the picture frame down on the bed and Remus decided to take a sneaking glance at it. In the picture he saw three people, one with wildly colored hair and a bright smile, another slightly taller person wearing an orange beanie, and the third, a little kid being lifted up by the second. The kid he immediately recognized as Patton. Dark brown hair, darker eyes, and most likely him unless Thomas cried over pictures of random white parents and their asian kids. That must be Joan and Talyn, Remus decided.

"Thomas," Remus wracked his brain. He couldn't say nothing. What would Patton say? What would Patton say? "You didn't fail them. I'm sure if they were here they wouldn't blame you."

Thomas gave him a very weak, very forced smile, before the two began their walk back downstairs. Remus had almost forgotten just how still and unnerving the air was down there without Patton's presence. Thomas went over to Roman and Logan and sat down with them at the table, meanwhile Remus speed walked to Dee, collapsed onto him, and held him there until Renette began speaking.

"So, to begin with some good news. Patton's not dead." Renette stated.

"How do you know?" Logan asked, he wasn't even trying to hide his hopefulness.

Renette smiled like she'd been hoping someone would ask. "When a Power Ranger dies, is no longer worthy, is too old, or injured to the point where they can never be a Ranger again, the morphers return to the Black Ranger, who then follows the instincts that their morpher gives them in order to make sure the morphers can find their perfect match. If Patton were dead or too injured to fight the pink morpher would have returned to Thomas, but seeing as how that hasn't happened yet, we can infer that Patton is both alive and well. Uh, well enough for the circumstances."

"What's the bad news?" Dee asked. "Usually if there's good news, there's also some bad news."

"Actually, more good news." Renette told him, her smile just as forced as Thomas' had been. "I know how we're going to get Patton back and have devised the perfect, though vague, plan for doing so!"

"Really?!" Emile shot up and looked at her with so much hope. Renette looked absolutely shattered.

"However, now is time for the bad news." Renette took a breath, in that time the room's attitude shifted so quickly Remus felt like he was in a reenactment of 'Hot N Cold' by Katy Perry. "The only way we would actually be able to retrieve him, is by going to space, specifically the Dragon Witch's ship which is in orbit around Mars currently. This is bad news because the only way you can get there is with your Zords and Thomas is the only one of all of you capable of summoning your Zords. Only having one Zord fly you up into space to infiltrate the Dragon Witch herself would be the dumbest plan known to man, and sadly the Pink Zord would be the best for a rescue mission considering it can turn invisible, but we'll make do."

The room was silent.

"Look, this is a lot to take in." Renette's voice softened. "And we haven't even gotten to the real reason I've kept you all here so late. It's been a terrible day and I'm not going to start shouting battle directions at you tonight. We'll begin with the plans and the training and everything in two days. You all need time to process. So finally, we're going to be discussing plans to tell your families the truths about your identities as the Power Rangers."

It was quiet for a beat before Roman, Remus, Logan, and Dee burst into conversation.

"What?!" Remus stood up.

"Absolutely not." Roman deadpanned.

"You can't be serious." Logan stated.

"My moms are gonna kill me!" Dee told Renette.

Roman and Remus continued explaining in hurried and loud tones that their parents would make them a spectacle and ruin everything. Logan started speed talking about his sisters and the stress they would feel and so on. Dee just kept saying 'My moms are gonna kill me' and variations of that over and over.

"Boys!!" Renette's voice rang out over them. The highschoolers fell silent. "I said, discussing plans. That does not mean we're telling all of your families without your consultation. Believe me this is the last thing we wanted and is certainly going to be difficult, but I at least need all of you to think about it over the next couple days."

The room was quiet again and Remus thought about his parents' faces if Roman tried to tell them. He didn't know whether to laugh or be afraid so he settled for both.

"Now, you've been here far too long already. I'm going to send you all home and urge you to try and get a good night's sleep. Please." Renette offered them another strained smile.

This had effectively ended the meeting and everyone said their goodbyes rather quickly and timidly. When Roman and Remus arrived home neither of their parents were there and without speaking the two continued their life-long tradition of Roman putting frozen garlic bread in the oven and Remus standing there and waiting because he still wasn't trusted with the oven. When the bread was done Roman silently gave two pieces to his brother and two pieces to himself before the two split off to their respective rooms to eat it.

Halfway through his second piece Remus heard his parents arriving home. His mood immediately shifted. The garlic bread tasted stale and he spit it out into a napkin from Chipotle. Remus put the half piece of garlic bread down on his dresser and waited. He heard his parents talking until that faded as they went to their room. Remus sat on his bed, practically praying they didn't leave their room for the rest of the night. Sadly, it didn't work because not long after he heard them begin walking around downstairs again.

His heart pounded as the footsteps got closer, though didn't go up the stairs. He realized they were nearing Roman's room and began to worry his brother was having the same reaction as him. Short breaths, clamped shut eyes, trying to will their parents into not opening the door. The footsteps stopped and Remus heard some voices but couldn't make out words. Finally that stopped too and the footsteps retreated. Remus' heart stopped beating so hard and he let his body relax.

Remus couldn't sleep. He knew Roman couldn't either. When Roman couldn't sleep he turned all of his lights off and played music or had a movie marathon on his laptop. Roman tried to keep the volume down but when your brother's room is right below yours, and the house you share is as hollow as bird bones, the sound seeps. Yet, Remus has never told his brother about the noise, Remus didn't know if it was because he didn't mind it or if he actually cared about his brother, but he decided to never really ask.

When Remus didn't sleep he dragged the old space heater from the basement to his room plugged it in and put it on full blast. Sure, it was the first week of November, but this was still Florida, and as Remus would put it 'Florida is hot as balls'. He never knew why the space heater comforted him, but it did, and Remus was currently in desperate need of some comfort. He sat, knees curled into his chest, right in front of the heater, ensuring the warmth hit him.

He was slightly startled when he heard buzzing and felt some vibration in the floor next to him. Remus outwardly groaned and fell down on his side, not moving until his phone buzzed again. Remus unwrapped one of his hands and lifted his phone, opening it quickly and wiping at his eyes so he could actually read it.

11:57 pm

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

are you asleep

n

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

did I wake you up

n

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

r you ok

12:02 pm

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

re neither of us like heavy talks but Im worried abt you

y tho

im fine

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

no youre not

none of us are fine rn but its different everytime

someone starts yelling you get scaredand cry and

if your psycho momismaking you like this i swear

im getting youout of there rn you arent staying there

12:09 pm

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

re pls answer me this isnt a good time for any of us

to shut up

my mom is shitty

u no this

its not imptnt

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

I think it is

seems like a u problm

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

Im coming over

dee no im fine

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

are you sure

. . .

Remus didn't know how to respond. On one hand he wanted to be alone, but on the other he knew Dee always made him feel better.

no

can u come over

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

tree house front door or window

tree house

💖🍑🍆💖Dee 💖🍆🍑💖:

b there asap

Remus put his phone back down. He didn't know how he felt. Usually Remus knew exactly what he was feeling, but now as he sat in the dark hot room, he was lost. He wondered for a moment if this was how Logan felt. Remus decided to move toward the front window and watch for Dee's car to drive by. Dee would never stop in front of their house, but he did go to the end of the street and park at the dead end. Remus grabbed the still hot to the touch heater and hauled it over to the window. He sat on the floor, heater in his lap pointed at his face, as he watched outside. Normally it wouldn't be cold enough for the glass to fog up but it was so hot in Remus' room the window did anyway.

As he watched he noticed the music from Roman's room had stopped. He assumed his brother was either about to put on a movie or was attempting to fall asleep again. Whatever the case Remus couldn't help but feel a little upset that the only noise that he could hear now was the humming of his heater and the cars passing their street. He thought maybe he could put on some music of his own-it would be a million times better than the music Roman plays-but his phone was where he had left it before and Remus didn't feel like moving again.

Finally Dee's car passed his house making Remus practically hop up from where he was and unplug his heater. As he left his room Remus made sure to grab his phone and walk as quietly as possible down stairs. He took careful and practiced steps on the hardwood, ensuring his parents wouldn't hear him. When he reached the back door Remus unlocked it swiftly and was out in the slightly humid Florida night air. Remus went around the house to meet Dee in the front and waited.

He saw his boyfriend walking down the street and couldn't help but smile. He had his face buried in his phone, probably trying to text Remus, but when he looked up and saw the taller man he shoved his phone in his pocket and started running. Dee reached Remus quickly and they embraced roughly, as if it was the first time they'd seen each other in years. Remus kissed his boyfriend's temple and held him, listening to Dee whisper into his shoulder. His words were sloppy and Remus could only really hear a few 'god I love you's and 'are you okay's. When the two pulled back Remus realized Dee wasn't wearing his makeup. He'd only seen Dee's vitiligo two times. The first was when Dee showed him in Remus' tree house, and the second when the two had gone back to Dee's house on halloween. Remus lightly traced the edge of the pale skin with his index finger, something he vaguely remembered doing Halloween night, though his memory of that night wasn't the best.

"That kinda tickles." Dee told him softly. Remus could see the tiredness in his eyes. When Dee was tired he didn't have much of a filter. Remus loved it really. "Why are your hands so soft?"

Remus chuckled but didn't really say anything. He started leading Dee to his tree house by the hand until Dee tripped over something and swore.

"What is that?" Dee asked.

"It's my space heater." Remus explained picking up the machine and presenting it for Dee to see. 

"Okay." Dee nodded, though it seemed like he wanted to ask more.

The two continued their walk, though now Remus had his heater in one arm, and Dee in the other. Remus sadly had to let go of his boyfriend when they reached the latter, but he got him back once they were through the trap door and inside the dark treehouse. As he brought Dee in just to hold him, he smelled the flowery shampoo and felt more at ease.

"Remus?"

Remus practically groaned that he had to let Dee go again, but he did anyway to face whoever else was in the treehouse. Apparently his twin brother had had a similar idea and brought Logan up into the tree house. If Roman wasn't in a hilarious love-hate relationship with Virgilius and Logan wasn't a total simp for Patton, Remus would wonder why they weren't dating.

"Because, you rat, they would dance around each other for years not even acknowledging their feelings until someone else points it out to them and then after a few late-night epifanies they finally get their feelings out there and end up married within the month." Dee told him. Remus must have said that last part out loud.

"Speak for yourselves." Roman rolled his eyes and huffed.

"Hey, we're not married." Dee pointed a finger at him.

"Yet." Remus added. "I'm not eighteen yet."

As Remus and Dee started moving to sit down with the other two Remus caught a whisper of "Am I a simp?" and the reply "Yes, yes you are.". Remus and Dee took their places next to each other on the floor.

Roman shuffled around before grasping something and turning on the fairy lights that ran along the ceiling. Remus plugged in his heater to the outlet and put it in his lap, letting the heat build as it hit him. Then he heard some gasping from across him and Dee and went still.

"Dee . . . " Logan started. "W-what?"

Remus looked over to see two shocked faces before realizing what exactly they were looking at. Remus squeaked and shoved his hands over Dee's face, the heater falling into his boyfriend's lap.

"Nothing!" Remus shouted.

"Remus," Dee pried his hands away. "It's fine. I'll just explain. They should know anyway. I don't want any more secrets like this in my life."

"What even is this?" Roman asked.

"This, is vitiligo." Dee said, softly handing Remus his heater back and looked at the other two. "It's a skin condition that causes patches of my skin to lose pigment. I've been covering it up with makeup since, well since Kayley told me I wouldn't be her friend if I didn't."

"She did that?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, she's uh, she's done a lot of stuff." Dee gave a sort of sad smile. "But um, stuff's been put in perspective for me. I guess. I don't want secrets like this anymore. My vitiligo is part of me, and I don't want to hide it."

"And that's all the better for me." Remus chimed in. "I think it's hot."

Dee laughed and leaned against Remus more. A welcomed gesture.

"I hate her so much." Roman grumbled. "Her performative activism, her racism, her colorism, and the way she uses us. God I just want to punch her."

"If Pat heard you say that he'd probably scold you." Remus said without thinking.

It was quiet and Remus felt a little pit of regret in his stomach begin to form.

"Yeah," Logan broke the silence. "But he isn't here, so I say punch away. Just not on school grounds."

The four gave a few laughs and went back to silence. Remus kept his arms around Dee and his face buried in his hair. He loved that smell. He loved how familiar this position was. He loved Dee and he was happy that he'd told him.

. . .

When Remus woke up he was surprised to feel something next to him. At least, until he smelled flowers and remembered that Dee had spent the night. He figured a couple extra minutes of sleep couldn't hurt and pulled Dee closer. His boyfriend grunted and turned, facing Remus and put his head on Remus' shoulder.

"Baby." Dee mumbled, still half asleep. "School. We gotta-ugh."

"Can't we just skip?" Remus asked.

There was a buzzing from his nightstand and Remus sighed, sitting up and reaching his hand over trying to find the source. Finally he grabbed his phone and lifted it up, rubbing at his eyes and squinting at the bright screen.

UNKNOWN:

No skipping school.

Remus showed it to Dee while he looked around his room.

"Shit, did they bug my room?" Remus whispered.

Dee chuckled and kissed Remus good morning.

"You got any clean clothes I can wear?" Dee asked.

"Well I dunno about clean Jan, but I got some for ya." Remus shrugged and got out of the bed, heading to his closet to search.

"What?" Dee asked.

"What what?" Remus questioned still looking.

"You called me Jan." He said.

"Oh." Remus stopped. "Sorry. I don't know why I said that."

"No." Dee stopped him. "I liked it."

"You did?" Remus turned around.

"Yeah." Dee nodded.

"Well," Remus turned back around and continued looking. "I'll do it more often."

Dee didn't respond but Remus hoped he was smiling. After a little longer Remus found a black shirt with the Nirvana logo on it that he'd cut into a crop top a few months back. He threw it over at Janus and kept looking.

"Uhh, so I don't have any jeans or anything that'll fit you. Unless you wanna wear this tennis skirt that I stole from my cousin two years ago." Remus said. "Also, um, none of my foundation is your skin tone."

"I'll take the skirt." Dee shrugged. "And, about the foundation, maybe I just, won't wear any today."

Remus grabbed the skirt but went still before turning to make sure his boyfriend wasn't lying.

"Uhm, are you sure?" Remus asked. "Don't get me wrong, I love that, but that's a really big thing. I mean, a lot is happening right now are you sure-"

"I'm sure." Janus told him. "Patton's gone 'Mus. And me worrying about what people think of me isn't gonna bring him back. It just wastes time. If I can focus on summoning my zord, then we can get Patton back faster."

"Okay." Remus shrugged, tossing him the skirt too. "As long as you're okay with it."

"I am." Janus smiled.

Remus dug around a little bit more and found some baggy pants and a tank top. The two got dressed and snuck their way downstairs. Hoping not to run into Remus' parents. When they entered the living room Roman sat on the couch, very surprised to see them, but immediately started motioning for them to not go in the kitchen. When Remus heard the garage door close he realized that was his dad leaving for work. Roman motioned to the clock and told them they had to leave now or they'd be late for school.

Janus agreed and the three got in Roman's jeep. During the ride Roman asked Janus about his foundation, to which he gave the same answer he'd given Remus. Remus asked about breakfast and Roman agreed to go to a drive through to get something. They pulled up and parked in front of school just as Remus finished his egg and sausage sandwich. He grabbed his drink from the cup holder and shouldered his backpack, stepping out of the car and into the Florida sun. Remus was surprised when he felt Janus walk up next to him and wrap their arms together.

"Is this okay?" Janus asked.

"Is what okay?"

"I was thinking we could just be casual about it, but um, I want people to know we're together." Janus shrugged. "I probably should have talked about this with you last night."

"I want that too." Remus told him excitedly. "I want that so much!"

"Can I kiss you at lunch?" Remus loved that little twinkle in Janus' eye when he asked.

"God yes. Yes you can." Remus knew he was smiling from ear to ear, and he didn't miss the mirrored look that Janus was giving him.

"Good. I was getting a little worried that some handsome guy was gonna snatch you away from me."

"Why would I pick anyone when I've already got a ten right here." Remus got a nice chuckle from Janus with that remark.

"Even if it was Spencer Reid?" Janus asked jokingly.

"Well. . ." Remus looked away.

Janus gave him a fake gasp of surprise and rolled his eyes.

"He's hot Jan." Remus defended.

"Oh please, you're my bitch."

"I usually love romance, but this is getting gross and weird." Roman said.

"Gross and weird," Remus pondered. "Never heard myself described better."

"That should be the name of your fashion line." Janus suggested.

"Oh Honeybee that may just be the smartest thing you've ever said." Remus held his boyfriend's hand and squeezed.

"I'm truly a genius." Janus said smugly. "It also doesn't hurt that I'm absolutely dying to wear your sluttiest design."

"And that is the hottest thing you've ever said." Remus booped his boyfriend's nose.

"Ew." Roman walked faster ahead of the two.

Remus and Janus laughed together and walked into school happily holding hands. A warm feeling filled Remus. His brain was fuzzier than usual and his face was hot. He devoured the feeling. Loving the way it encompassed and consumed him. No more worrying, no more anxiety, no more of that pit in his stomach, no more bubbling in his throat. He savored that feeling. He cherished it and let it fill his senses. It was possibly the sweetest feeling he'd ever known.

Sadly however, it was short lived.

"Dee!"

Remus winced practically right away. God how he hated her voice.

"What the hell is this?" Kayley asked curtly.

Janus wasn't paying attention to her. When Remus examined Janus' face it was dreadful, but not because of Kayley, he didn't think Janus had even noticed her. No he was looking past her. Remus followed his line of sight and knew exactly why Janus looked so distraught. Megan, Patton's foster sister, was talking to Logan. Both with puffy eyes and sad expressions. Everything hit Remus once again. The stabbing pain always came in waves. And as much as Remus wanted to ignore it, run from it, he knew he couldn't. Patton was gone. It hurt. Maybe instead of getting over his hurt. He could weaponize it.

Weaponize hurt? Remus thought, I should tell the others about this? If it's not a motive then its at least a good band name. Weaponized Hurt.

"Dee!" Kayley practically shouted in his face.

Janus focused on Kayley, rather than a distraught look, he gave her one of smugness. God that's hot, Remus thought.

"Hey Baby?" Janus looked to Remus. "Can you go over and make sure Logan and Megan are okay while I deal with this?"

Remus audibly sighed. He wanted to see his boyfriend tear her to pieces, but he did as Janus asked and gave him a kiss on the head for goodbye. He got closer to Logan and Megan and motioned to let them know he was there.

"Remus." Logan looked a little surprised.

"Heya Lo." Remus gave him a nod. "Megan, how are you?"

"Oh ya know," The girl sighed. "My brother was captured by a crazy space lady and taken onto some spaceship and turns out he'd been the Pink Ranger for the past few months. Oh and I can't talk to anyone but the other Rangers about this. And I might never see him again. And everyone's going to be asking me where he is. And my mom is going batshit crazy. And I'm going batshit crazy."

"Yeah. . . " Remus looked away and back again. "I think that's reasonable."

"How would you know what reasonable is?" She scoffed a little. "You just walked into school with Dee Jareau on your arm after Kayley made it very clear she hates your guts."

"Whatever, I have an army of freshmen at my side. They're all 'down with capitalism' and 'eat the rich' she doesn't stand a chance against 'em." Remus told her.

Megan gave him a sad laugh. "I'd love to see some kids rock her shit. Anyway, I should probably go tell Naomi why her best friend isn't in school today. Talk to me though. Tell me about any and all updates. No offense to Renne or whatever her name was but I don't trust the government too much."

"I promise we will." Logan told her.

"Thank you." She gave the two a little smile and made her way over to Naomi. The two girls left for a private place and Remus turned to Logan.

"You okay?"

"I'm feeling well enough." Logan told him. "How about yourself?"

"It comes and goes." Remus said.

Logan nodded. "Have you seen Emile yet?"

"No, I just got here." Remus looked back over to Janus and Kayley who seemed to be a second away from tearing each other's eyes out. "But uh, I doubt he's coming. Can you imagine telling that kid he has to come to school? Let alone Thomas telling him he has to?"

"No, no I can not." Logan admitted. "I hope things go well for you and Dee. Just know that if the two of you and Kayley get in a physical altercation, punch for me as well. I don't ever believe I'll get to confront her over the comments she has made to me, but knowing you are able to practically do it for me, is good enough."

"You got it." Remus smirked.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say your boyfriend is about to commit a homicide." Logan told him.

"I know." Remus tilted his head as he stared at Janus. "I love him so much."


	21. Dagger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're trying their best to get their friend back, but Janus feels as unhelpful as ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Janus centric, training, kissing, affection
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: physical fight and assault on two main chracters, use of a knife during a fight, (to not read the fight skip the part of the chapter that starts and ends with three dots: …), swearing, talks of said fight, mentions of relationship issues, mentions of kidnapped character, name calling, flashbacks to said fight, angst, self doubt, self loathing, feeling helpless, I feel like I’ve missed some so if I have please let me know and I’ll add those.

Janus felt sick. It was all too much. He'd ditched the first and closest friend he'd made three years ago, he told everyone in school that he was dating, no in love, with Remus. He showed the people in his school that he had vitiligo, he told his moms that he was the Yellow Power Ranger, and he and the other Rangers had been training almost non-stop just hoping they could get Patton home by Thanksgiving.

As Janus got knocked off his feet by Logan for the fourth time today he felt the sick feeling in his stomach grow in his throat.

"I would make an effort to sound more supportive, but I've always preferred being blunt." Logan stated as he stood over Janus. "You suck at this."

"Shut up." Janus grunted, staying still on the floor.

Logan decided to sit down next to him, looking over at Roman and Remus who were continuing their sparring match.

"My point is you don't usually suck at this, so why did you start now?"

"I'm not trying to suck, Logan." Janus exclaimed.

"Well it certainly appears that way." Logan muttered, Janus wasn't sure he was supposed to hear that.

"I'm just not feeling it today Logan." Janus told him. "A lot has changed this week and I guess I'm not taking it as well as I hoped I would."

"Ah." Logan nodded. "Perhaps you should talk to Remus about this. With Patton not here to help with emotional support, I assume your next best option is Remus. Considering you don't like talking to your therapist."

"I have talked to my therapist. Talking about it helped, but not for too long." Janus said. "The feeling comes back."

"I'm assuming you can't just ignore this feeling?"

"Nope." Janus stated. "Is that what you normally do?"

Logan didn't respond.

"Ugh." Janus sat up. "Lets just go back to practice. I don't need a twink like you to go all therapist on me."

"Alright." Logan stood up, though he seemed unsure about the idea.

Janus and Logan faced each other, Janus readied himself, summoning two daggers. Janus made the first move. He threw a dagger toward Logan's chest hoping to distract him. As Logan dodged Janus ran forward and made a strike, it didn't land however as Logan apparently had enough time to dodge the first dagger and Janus. Logan then was able to summon his lance and back away from Janus. The Yellow Ranger planted his feet, and kicked off yet again, knowing he could disarm Logan with a couple well placed strikes. He threw two daggers as he ran forward and summoned two more. Both of the daggers missed, but successfully distracted Logan enough for Janus to get close and jab at Logan's arms. Suddenly, Logan stepped to the side, Janus stumbled forward and got his legs swept out from under him by Logan's lance. On his way to the ground Logan elbowed Janus in the back.

Janus hit the floor with a thump and sighed. As he flipped over he saw Logan observing one of his daggers. Janus summoned it away. Logan looked over at Janus and sighed.

"You still suck."

"F you." Janus groaned. "Did you have to elbow me?"

"Did you have to call me a twink?"

Janus sat up and threw his helmet across the ground in anger.

"Whoa!" Roman moved out of the way as the helmet skittered past him. "Janus are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Janus shouted back, crossing his arms.

"You don't seem fine."

"He's not fine." Logan stated. "Remus come get your boyfriend, he's being a prick."

"I am not! I'm just frustrated!"

"And you're being a prick about it." Logan retorted.

"What's going on here? Janus why are you on the ground?" Thomas asked, coming out into the training area.

"Cause he sucks at sparring me and is being moody about it." Logan said blandly.

"Snitch." Janus sneered. "I'm going home Thomas."

Janus stood and swiped his helmet away from Roman who had picked it up and made a move to leave.

"Ah, ah, ah, no leaving. Training is still going."

"Can I at least take a break?" Janus tried, getting heated.

"Yeah, that's okay." Thomas said, softening greatly.

"Thanks." Janus said under his breath.

He walked into the building and collapsed on the nearest seat, deactivating his Ranger suit.

"Hey Jan." Emile poked his head in the room and smiled at him.

"Hey Emile." Janus grunted.

"Ooh, that doesn't sound good." Emile walked over to Janus and sat down on the floor. "What's up."

"Nothing Emile."

"Nope, none of that. Tell me what's up." Emile shouldered Janus's leg and looked up at him expectantly.

"It's really nothing. I'm just in a mood."

"Why?" Emile asked.

"I don't know, I just am." Janus said.

"Well, think, what's happened to you recently that would put you 'in a mood'?" Emile went on. "You told the whole school about your Vitiligo, about you dating Remus, you cut ties with your close friend, and you told your moms about you being a Ranger. That's some pretty big stuff there. I'd be 'in a mood' too."

"Yeah but none of that matters Emile."

"Why?"

"Because whatever's going on with me, Patton's going through ten times worse! He's up there, probably alone, maybe getting tortured, we-we don't know!" Janus said, panic filling his voice. "My stupid issues mean nothing when all they are, are distractions from saving Patton."

Emile was quiet for a beat. "Well that's just stupid."

"What?"

"What I mean is that doesn't make sense." Emile clarified. "Janus, just because someone is going through something worse, that doesn't mean your issues are any less valid. I mean, you are going through a lot right now, it's okay to be overwhelmed by it. Now, putting aside your issues to work for a larger goal is a noble act, but it's ultimately useless when you're actively destroying yourself."

Janus looked down at Emile, in a bit of shock.

"Human brains, when presented with an issue, have to solve it before moving on to another one. Even if it doesn't seem like it, your brain is actively working on that first problem while you try to solve the second one. This results in you working on both problems inefficiently rather than just one with the best effort you can give." Emile went on. "If I can try to guess what's happening here, I'd say you haven't given yourself the time to fully grasp what's happened in your personal life, your brain hasn't been able to decide what it thinks about everything that's going on. Now you're trying to focus on getting Patton home, but you can't fully devote yourself to it."

"You're fourteen, why are you diagnosing me?"

"I'm taking AP Psych ya know." Emile nudged him playfully.

"How, you're a freshman?"

"My dad's the counselor, and I'm doubling up with online classes." Emile explained.

"Try-hard." Janus scoffed.

"Yeah, kinda. I just like being prepared." Emile didn't give off any sign that he had been a little offended by Janus' comment, like Janus had intended.

The older boy rolled his eyes and shut his mouth. However, as he pouted, he started thinking about what Emile had said. Sure, Emile had jumped to a lot of conclusions, but Janus was starting to realize there was some truth in what he'd said.

"Sorry." Janus said softly.

"Don't be. I know you don't really mean anything by it." Emile responded.

"What, uhm, what should I do? To get over it I mean."

"Hmm, honestly, I'm not sure. What issue do you think your brain is all hung up on right now?"

"I-I don't know." Janus said. "I guess, I'm mad about the fight. I mean, what she did makes me so mad when I think about it, but whenever I talk to anyone about what happened they tell me to shrug it off and I just can't."

"Well, do you wanna talk to me about it? You don't have to, but I promise to not tell you to just 'get over it'. I'll give you my opinions and you can take them as you want." Emile suggested. "I wasn't there that day so I didn't see anything. I just, well, heard the gist of what happened."

"Ha," Janus laughed a little sadly. "It's a good thing you weren't there honestly. And, maybe I could use some psychoanalyzing from you Emile. You seem like you know your shit."

"I don't but whatever makes you feel better."

Janus took note of that and began his story.

. . .

The final bell rang and Janus hopped out of his seat so fast it was pushed back a good few inches. He raced to Remus and intertwined their fingers. Remus leaned into him. Janus couldn't wait to get used to the feeling of proudly showing off him and his boyfriend being together. They'd gotten so many looks throughout the day, ranging from 'they're so cute' to 'why the hell are they dating' and even the 'ew stop making out in the hallway'.

Janus didn't mind though, in fact he loved it. He knew he probably shouldn't, but it felt good to have people talking about him because of something he's proud of. He knows not everything they're saying is nice, but at least they're talking about something he's confident about.

During the morning he had bargained with himself-you can be proud of this today, but the second midnight comes you're devoting yourself to getting Patton back. He was fine with that, Janus figured he only needed a day anyway.

Janus' skirt swayed as he and Remus made their way to get some snacks before going to Thomas'. Janus felt good, he felt a breath of fresh air fill his lungs, it was a sweetness he didn't realize he'd missed. As the couple passed some cross looking seniors Janus remembered what he'd said earlier that day; 'I was getting a little worried some handsome guy was gonna snatch you away from me'. At the time it was a joke, but Janus couldn't deny there was a little truth behind it. Liking Remus, though it may not seem like it, wasn't too uncommon, especially among the skaters and goths in their school. Janus had never associated with either crowd-though he'd secretly wished he could-but rumors still went around. He knew Remus would never cheat on him, or leave him so suddenly, but Janus was still a self-admitted jealous bitch. He couldn't help but feel a little smug smile on his lips as the two walked by the slightly angry group. Suck it skater guy and emo chick, Janus thought, I win.

Janus' thoughts were cleared away when Remus started talking about possible names for the spider he'd found in his room and had stuck in a can of Monster Energy. As Janus offered some ideas of his own however he was interrupted by someone coming up and violently shoving Remus forward.

The taller boy stumbled and staggered but Janus reached out quickly and helped balance him before turning around and getting ready to beat a bitch into the ground. Kayley's college boyfriend that Janus had already forgotten the name of stood there, his jaw squared and looking ready to fight.

"What the hell?" Janus asked. He didn't sound overly angry, instead his tone was more of an exasperated 'dude'.

"You think you can talk shit about my girlfriend and just get away with it?!" He yelled back.

"I mean yeah, I have and I did." Janus snorted.

"Well you're not getting away with it freak."

"And why not? She deserves it. And even if she didn't, I still did it, what are you gonna hit me? Go ahead see what happens!" Janus stepped closer to the guy.

"You're a shithead I'm gonna kill you-"

"You're not getting the damn chance." Remus said sternly as he turned around and grabbed the dude's arm before it came down to swing at Janus. Remus punched the guy's stomach hard and let go of him, letting him stumble back.

"Ugh." The guy recoiled, clutching his stomach and lurching over. "I'm gonna kick your asses."

"Oh you are? Cause uh, I think you're about to blow chunks." Remus laughed.

Janus heard the footsteps behind him before he saw the figure coming at him. He stepped to the side and turned around, bracing himself for the person to run into him. Janus saw that they were around his size and took a chance. The person threw their punch and Janus ducked down, dodging it, they then attempted again and this time Janus was able to grab their arm, yank them forward, so they were behind him, stomp on the back of their knee, and then flip them over his shoulder and onto the ground. The person groaned and laid on their back.

Another few were coming for him and Janus was soon overwhelmed; they knocked him to the ground and began their onslaught of attacks, but at one point were called over by another person to join them away from Janus. The boy's head throbbed on the concrete but he pushed himself onto his feet and looked over for Remus, only to find that he too had been knocked to the ground and swarmed by the group of college kids .They kicked and stomped on him hard, Janus didn't know what to do but run forward and try to shove them away.

"Got off him!!" Janus yelled. "He didn't do shit!!"

By this point a small crowd had formed, they were just watching it all happen. No one moved to help, no one said anything, they just stared, gawking at the scene. A few of them had pulled out their phone and appeared to be taking videos.

Janus panicked. They weren't getting away, and he needed them gone soon, Remus was curled into a ball whimpering as they split his lip and kicked his stomach. Janus ran forward and pushed his way to Remus bending over him and cradling him as they continued to kick and laugh. Janus hunched over and concentrated, he needed to hurry and he knew this might not work, but he had to try. Come on, come on, I need to get them out of here, Janus begged. As tears began to form in his eyes Janus felt a weight in his hand and smiled. You did it again.

"Get the hell away from us!!!" Janus screamed, brandishing the knife he had summoned.

The two who could see the knife backed off and motioned for the others to as well.

"I'm not afraid to use this, now get the hell back and leave us alone!!!" Janus yelled again.

The group fully backed off and looked around at the crowd of people that had gathered.

"Let's get out of here before someone calls the police." Janus heard one of them whisper.

"But Daniel said-"

"I don't give a shit about what Daniel said, let's go, I'm not getting arrested for beating up some kids." The first one cut his friend off.

The group began their run off and soon the spectators also dispersed, none of them going over to Janus and Remus.

"Remus?" Janus asked softly.

Remus didn't respond. His face was slack but his eyes showed so much fear. Janus didn't know what to do. He let the dagger fall away and held his boyfriend closer. Finally, letting himself cry.

. . .

"I was able to get him to Thomas's where Roman helped me get him back to talking and we fixed him up." Janus told Emile. "Remus doesn't want to talk about it and I'm not gonna force him to, but everyone I've talked to just tells me that it happened and I need to move on. I just can't."

"I can see why." Emile said. "I mean, that's a lot. A former friend tried to have you beaten up and your boyfriend was paralyzed in fear and now can't speak about what happened."

"Mhm." Janus nodded.

"What do you want to hear?"

"What?"

"Well, you've talked to people about what happened, and they keep telling you the wrong thing, they aren't giving you enough satisfaction to be able to put it further out of mind. So, my question is, what do you want to hear from them?"

"I-" Janus stopped. He had no idea. "I'm not sure."

Emile was quiet. He leaned against Janus' leg further and started tapping his fingers against the floor in what seemed to be a random pattern.

"What did you say you felt about the whole thing? Angry?"

"Yeah, angry." Janus confirmed, but he thought some more. "But, uhm, maybe also a little scared."

"Scared?"

"Yeah, I-I don't know why just, something about this is scaring me."

"Is it that you think they'll come back for you?" Emile asked.

"No, no that's not it." Janus said. "They're not coming back and if they do I'll kick their asses. No hesitation."

"Okay, what else could it be?" Emile pondered.

"I-I'm really not sure." Janus' voice shook. "I mean, I don't know."

"What else do you feel then? Think really hard. Is there something you're feeling that you're scared to admit?" Emile asked. "It's okay if there is. I understand if you don't want to talk about something, but I'm here for you."

"That's it." Janus said, he slid down from his seat in the chair so he was next to Emile on the ground."

"Oh, I'm sorry do you not wanna talk anymore?"

"No, no, I mean, that feeling, that feeling I have, I'm scared." Janus explained.

"You're scared? Of what?"

"I-" Janus was going to say he wasn't sure but he knew that wasn't true. Emile wanted to help him, to do so Emile needed the truth. "I'm afraid that I'm not good enough."

"Good enough for what?"

"For Remus. For the team. To be a Ranger. Anything." Janus felt himself get choked up. "I'm not good enough-"

"Janus, Janus." Emile grabbed his hand. "Don't. You are good enough. You're better."

"No I'm not Emile!" Janus told him. "When those assholes got Remus to the ground, kicked him, yelled at him, and worse, I couldn't do anything. I just laid there, scared, and then finally when I got over myself and went over to help, I had to rely on being a Ranger in order to help him at all. I couldn't do it on my own. I summoned a dagger. If I hadn't done that who knows what would have happened and-and god, I'm pathetic! I couldn't help myself, I couldn't help Remus. I'm the reason Remus even got hurt in the first place, I'm the reason he was assaulted, I'm the reason Remus has barely been able to talk to me since what happened! When I'm just me I ruin everything, If I'm not the Yellow Ranger I'm useless."

"That's what you learned after that fight?" Emile whispered. "Janus, the Ranger ability doesn't make someone perfect, strong. The ability to be a Ranger, these morphers, they can only build on a person's already existing strength. They react to emotions, they provide a sort of security while you fight for yourself. It's okay that you had to use the Ranger ability, that's what they're there for. Janus you're not pure strength, you're clever, you adapt to situations, having to use the Ranger ability to help yourself and Remus doesn't mean without it you're weak, it means you know how to save yourself by adapting to what's happening around you. You were scared and angry in that moment and reacted using those emotions, just as humans do. You should be proud."

"I should?"

"Yes! Of course you should! You should be so proud of yourself! I'm proud of you. I know the others are too. It's okay to be scared Janus, it's part of being human, but never, ever doubt yourself. You're not perfect, but no one is, everyone's definition of perfect is different, and I think that's beautiful. Just know that it might still take some time to get your emotions under control, and it might still take some concentration to get past this, but knowing that you're strong is a good first step. I believe in you. So I think you should believe in you too." Emile smiled brightly.

Janus wanted to laugh. He couldn't believe the freshman in front of him had practically solved the puzzle in his mind that he'd been working on for almost a week. And he'd done it after one conversation and half a semester of a psych class. Janus hugged Emile tightly, who responded with surprise but wrapped his arms around Janus happily nonetheless.

"Thanks Emile." Janus said when he pulled back. "I feel better. Not the best, but better. I think I'm ready to move on."

Emile didn't say anything in response. He just smiled widely and pulled Janus in for yet another hug. "Go back out there. Work hard, but not too hard."

"I will." Janus smiled. He got up from the floor and walked out the door, helmet in hand, ready.

Logan and Thomas were working on some form of demonstration while the twins observed, both looking very annoyed.

"Janus!" Roman called.

"Janus, good, can you come here?" Thomas asked.

Janus made his way over to thomas.

"How're you feeling kiddo?"

"Better. Emile's really good at helping people out." Janus shrugged.

"Well he got it all from Patton." Thomas smiled wistfully. "Now, I'm trying to show the twins something, I've shown Logan what to do I just need you to defend as best as you can."

"Yeah I can do that." Janus nodded.

Thomas moved out of the way and Janus took his place across from Logan, taking a defensive stance and putting his helmet on.

"Sorry about what I said earlier." Logan told him in a hushed tone.

"It's fine, I was being a prick." Janus smiled in return.

"Eh, I was being a prick too." Logan shrugged.

"Ha, who told you that?" Janus rolled his eyes.

"Well, no one really. But I figure if Remus has to tell you to stop being an ass, you must really be acting like an ass." Logan explained with a jokey tone.

Janus felt a little pang in his chest. He always felt that little pang when Remus did something that Janus knew he would remember for a long time. It would just stick with him. Just a little thing Remus would do for Janus.

"Go!" Thomas yelled.

Logan jumped forward, his lance wasn't summoned yet but Janus wouldn't take any chances. He summoned his own weapons, one in each hand, and kept his defensive position. Logan, once halfway to Janus summoned his lance and very clearly made a strike toward Janus' feet. Janus did a high front flip, using all the propulsion he had to move forward and away. Logan in return dropped down to his knees and slid right under Janus, once Janus' feet hit the ground he turned and saw as Logan struck his lance on the ground and used his force to propel himself off the ground and feet-first toward Janus. Janus readied himself, but as Logan swung forward, Janus reeled, he saw the flying punches, the sneering faces, heard the laughing. Suddenly he was back to wearing a skirt and getting assaulted by a group of angry college students. Janus closed his eyes tight, brought his hands in front of his body and screamed in fear.

However, Janus never felt the impact. Instead he felt the wind whoosh behind him, the ground tremble, and heard the gasps and running footsteps of his friends. Janus opened his eyes, confused, and looked forward. The others had retreated as far away as possible, and there was a long, big shadow covering Janus and part of the training area. Janus felt a harsh puff of wind behind him and yelped, jumping away and turning around.

There, behind him was a large yellow mechanical snake. Janus could barely fathom its existence. Its metal scale-like plates curved and curled as the snake looking machine coiled and appeared to hiss at the other Rangers. The dark silver stomach shined in the sun and Janus watched in awe as the creature lowered its head to the ground. The golden eyes of the snake looked at Janus with so much life behind them, Janus couldn't believe this was a machine, it had to be something more.

Janus reached his hand out slowly moving to touch the yellow zord. When his gloved hand hit the cool metal he felt something, a feeling, a feeling that wasn't his own. As if he was feeling someone else's emotions. He could sense things about this zord. Who it had been in the past. Who it had loved, cared for, protected, trusted. And how protective it was of him. The machine gave another mechanical sounding sigh and closed its eyes. Janus could feel the trust that this snake was giving him in that moment. He knew it's weaknesses, its strengths, and Janus let it know his. Let it understand all it needed to about him. The creature's feelings coincided with Janus's, like a double edged sword, both parts of a whole.

"Hello." Janus said softly. "I'm Janus."

Janus felt the creature's feelings overwhelm his own with a sweetness he wasn't used to.

"Janus!!!"

Janus whipped around to the voice. Remus had run forward and wrapped his arms around Janus' waist, holding him tight and lifting him into the air. Janus laughed and hugged Remus close.

"Oh my god you did it!!!" Remus exclaimed.

"I did it!!!" Janus echoed.

Remus put Janus down and took his own helmet off, followed by Janus'. A large huff exhaled out of the snake as it's head got close to Remus, a little malintent in its eyes.

"Whoa." Remus stepped back.

"It's okay." Janus laughed quickly, he placed a hand caringly on the snake. "Everything's okay."

The snake rested its head back on the ground, still skeptical, but allowed Janus to move forward toward Remus. He did, Janus fell back into Remus' arms and kissed him deeply.

"I love you." Remus told him when they pulled away.

"I know. I love you too."

Thomas, Roman, and Logan joined the two, staring at the yellow Zord as its body continued to curl and lift its head up, peering down at the Rangers.

"I thought the Yellow Ranger's zord was a saber tooth tiger." Logan pointed out.

"The zord takes the form of an animal that the Ranger can work best with." Thomas explained. "Ya know Janus, you get to name it."

Janus stepped forward. He looked up at the snake and smiled. "Maureen. She likes the name Maureen."


	22. Feel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys have finally infiltrated the Dragon Witch's ship in search of the Pink Ranger, but things go a little too smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric, Maureen the snake zord, Teddy the turtle zord, it’s nice for like two seconds guys I’m so sorry, there’s also a lot of words
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, yelling, screaming, mentions of death/dying/killing, kidnapping, off screen parental abuse(??), mentions of parental neglect if you squint, shocking someone with an object, unconciousness, angst, terror, crying, purposeful use of wrong pronouns, mentions of extreme depression, anxiety, a lot of crying, abandonment by a father(daddy issues), quick mention of drunk driving accident (Please let me know if there are more I will add them)

Logan had seen many great sights in his life, and yet, every single one had a bitter sweet undertone. When he was two his father had taken him to New York City. Logan had always wanted to see a big city. On that trip Logan found that he quite enjoyed being in the city, tall towers, bright lights, technology and business all around him. He didn't enjoy the mass amount of people there, but he figured for a city to truly be a city he could stand the people. The two arrived home to Logan's one year old sister and a very pregnant mother, then the next day his father was gone. Never to contact the family again.

Then when Logan was eight his aunt took him and his sisters to see the Grand Canyon. He remembered sitting on the edge of the rocks wondering how such a beauty could have been created. Later that night his aunt explained that his father had died in a drunk driving accident, and he'd taken the lives of two innocent people with him. When the Montgomery children got home they found it in complete disarray. Like a tornado had ripped through their home, smashing anything with significance.

When Logan was ten Roman's parents took him and Roman to see Phantom of the Opera. Logan had never really enjoyed tedious plays like Phantom, but when he saw the boat come across a foggy stage under a glittering chandelier, he was left flabbergasted. The next week Roman left their school to go to a private school an hour away. He didn't return to public school for another three years.

Then, freshman year of highschool, first day, first class, a boy sat on Logan's left, he'd made it just before the bell and was still catching his breath. Logan remembered when Roman had made him watch an arbitrarily put together Disney Channel Original Movie marathon. Most of those movies contained an opening narration describing the main character's love interest as getting a 'glow up' over summer and now suddenly being the one everyone ogled in the halls. Logan had never liked that trope, but he couldn't deny there was a small bit of truth to it after Patton Valentine had gotten back to school in ninth grade. Logan had always found Patton Valentine more aesthetically appealing than his other classmates, but there'd been a dark cloud over his head since they were eight. Of course, no one other than Patton himself had truly known why, but when he took that seat on Logan's left that day, it was like he had completely changed. There were some physical changes of course, but he mostly just seemed healthier. Happier. Of course, Logan wasn't the only one to take notice. Patton was the topic of everyone's conversations throughout the first week of school. However, for him it was that moment when Patton sat down, with a smile that was begging to turn to laughter, pale brown hair that was shaken by his run, and a sweater tied around his shoulders even though it was close to 100 degrees, that was the moment Logan knew he was completely and utterly infatuated with Patton Valentine. That is until his euphoric moment ended and a wave of reality told him they would never be together.

All those moments replayed in Logan's mind as he thought about where he was now. Inside the yellow zord, or Maureen as Janus had proclaimed, looking out a window at the vast expanse of space. A black so deep ink could only attempt to replicate it, stars that glittered in whites, reds, blues, and yellows, and there Logan was, watching it all. This was a moment he had dreamed of ever since that trip to New York. To see the stars so up close was a privilege so few got to enjoy and Logan had been making it his life's mission to be one of those people since he knew what the word astronaut was. Then of course came the bittersweet. The only reason he was in space in the first place was because the boy he so desperately liked had been kidnapped no more than two weeks ago.

"Stop thinking so hard." Remus whined as he stepped away from Logan and toward his boyfriend.

"What?" Logan asked, turning away from the stars and toward the other two Rangers.

"You're thinking too hard. I can practically smell it." Remus walked around Janus as he sat in the control chair, guiding Maureen behind Thomas and his zord. "Like a sweaty book trying to put on shitty lotion from Bath and Body Works."

"Ew." Janus laughed. Remus joined him in the snickering and took a seat across Janus' lap.

"How did I get stuck here with you two?" Logan rolled his eyes.

"I know we're just terrible." Janus drawled out his words.

"Pay attention Janus." Logan crossed his arms and turned back to the window.

"I'm paying plenty attention Logan. All I have to do is follow Thomas ya know."

"Janus-"

"Well in case you haven't noticed we're literally in space Janus." Logan said back. "Sorry if I'm a little wary of the fact that you've never been in space, never driven a zord into space, and are currently allowing yourself to be distracted."

"Janus-"

"I'm not allowing myself to be distracted by anything." Janus sneered back. "I'm focused on this mission and I'm ready for anything."

"Janus-"

"It certainly doesn't seem that way-" Logan scowled.

"Janus!" Remus finally snapped.

"What?!" Both Janus and Logan yelled back.

"What could possibly be so important?" Logan asked, frustrated.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the moon!!"

"The what?" Janus asked.

Just then the zord turned abruptly on its own, trying hard to not smash its face into the moon, but instead succeeded in landing on the moon's surface on its right. The three Rangers flew forward. Remus fell onto the floor and rolled a little, Logan stumbled but caught himself on the window sill, and Janus fell on the metal floors, face first. There was a beat of silence before the zord seemed to huff and lift itself up propelling off the moon's surface on its own.

"Sorry Mo." Janus said as he stood up. "Though in my defense Logan was being annoying."

"And I apparently had cause to be so." Logan muttered back.

Remus had decided to stay where he was on the ground and Logan didn't blame him.

"Are you guys okay?" Thomas' voice came over the communicators in their helmets.

"Yeah we're good." Janus told him. "Just couldn't stop in time."

"I get that." Thomas said kindly. "It's hard to control your zord at first. It took me a while to understand Teddy well enough. Remember it's not just about driving your zord like a car, it's more about having a trust between you and your zord. You need to trust that your zord is truly yours. Loyal to you. And you need to prove that you can treat your zord well."

"Thanks Thomas I-I know that. I'm more just having problems with this whole Tony Stark hologram controlling whatever the hell." Janus told him plainly. "Driving a car I can do. Mess around with barely visible holograms like an Avenger? Not so easy."

"Yea. . . " Thomas replied a little awkwardly. "I can't really help with that. Sorry. Every zord is different, you just have to learn along the way."

"Great." Janus sighed. He situated himself back in the control chair and said holograms popped back up, displaying controls that Logan couldn't make sense of even if he tried. "God it's like the Enterprise drank five monster energies and had a stroke."

"You know Star Trek?" Logan asked.

"Of course I do." Janus dead-panned.

Logan looked back to the stars again. They were passing the moon, at a slower pace now, and once again Logan found himself marvelling at the sight before him. He wondered if Patton had been able to see what he was seeing. None of them truly knew where those breaches went. He tried to imagine Patton's reaction to space but he only found himself imagining a sad broken Patton on the floor of a ship, looking up at the stars in tears. He was even more disturbed to find that this Patton he was imagining was so much like the Patton he had known before Freshman year. Sad. Broken. Withering away.

Instead Logan tried to imagine Patton seeing space in a more healthy environment. Perhaps with the other Rangers. In one of their zords. Seeing the beauties of space simply because they can. Of course that just led Logan to picture him and Patton seeing space together, preferably alone, though he wouldn't mind Roman being there. Roman always knew how to make Logan and Patton happy. However, if it were just the two of them, Logan knew his experience would be far different from where it was now. Forgetting the entire reason why Logan was in space to begin with, he knew that if it were just Patton and Logan seeing the stars for the first time together Logan wouldn't spend a second looking at the stars themselves. Why would he? Seeing the star's in Patton's eyes would be far more beautiful.

Logan stopped himself. He almost chuckled at his own thoughts. For as emotionless as Logan often was, he'd still find himself thinking those things about Patton. And for the time being, Patton alone. He knew if Roman could hear his thoughts his friend would positively burst into tears. Though Logan wasn't entirely sure why.

"Holy shit." Speaking of Roman, the boy's voice came over the coms.

"What? What is it?" Remus asked, finally sitting up.

As Maureen passed the moon Logan and the others got a full view of what had gotten such a reaction from Roman. There placed just where you couldn't see it from Earth, was a spaceship. Almost as large at the moon, with jagged edges and a looming, menacing, overwhelming feeling. Logan was most unnerved by the way the ship's center resembled a crown. One not unlike that of Virgilius, only more regal, of higher status. Surrounding the main structure were rings that circled the center like lines of orbit around the sun. Even those jutted out unnaturally. Logan couldn't tell if the feeling he now had was the desire to run, throw up, or both.

"Ja-Janus." Thomas said, stirring them all from their trances. His voice was breaking. It was a very upsetting sound at that. "Uhm, I need you to listen very carefully. As far as we've observed from satelites no changes to the ship have been made since the-the last time I was here. So we're going to land the zords on an unguarded shipping post. It's a piece of debris that they use as a landing hub for various ships. They scan the ships then send them to the outer most ring."

"So, we land on the bottom of one of those shipping posts, wait for a ship to make it through their inspection, then hitch a ride to the outer ring." Roman continued. "Do you know where they're keeping Patton though?"

"I-I don't. We don't know if they've made internal changes to the ship, just external. But, when we get inside we're going to need to find a specific room. We used to just call them their computer rooms. There was a few of these rooms on each ring. They contain a map of that section of the ring. Not-not sure what else is on them, we;ve just used them as maps." Thomas told him. "It won't be hard to find though. Just stay behind me and be careful. They have guards, generals, just about anyone, patrolling the halls. You'll want to be careful."

The Rangers gave Thomas their affirmations and the line went quiet. Logan watched as Thomas' turtle zord in front of them sped forward, making long swooping, practiced motions. Janus did his best to follow suit. Suddenly Teddy took a dive, quickly followed by Maureen. When the yellow zord caught up with the one before it Thomas came back on the coms.

"Do you see that Iceberg looking rock above us and to the left?" He asked.

"Yes." Janus replied quickly.

"That's where we need to land. It's larger when you get closer, but listen, we need to be very careful. These things are debris, not ships. Their gravity comes from the ship and the moon, too much unbalance from our zords could allert the guards and inspectors that unwanted ships landed." Thomas explained. "I'm gonna land first, sort of show you how to do it, but after that I really need you to work with Maureen on landing."

"Got it." Janus nodded.

"You got this Janus." Thomas told him softly.

"Thanks Thomas."

Logan watched as the black Zord took its turn. Flying forward with incredible speed until reaching a short radius surrounding the station. Then Thomas slowed way down, turning upside down and extending the legs of the turtle zord just a little bit farther to cushion the impact. Once Thomas was secure he called for Janus to go next. Logan could see how nervous the boy was, but a loving squeeze on the hand from Remus gave Janus enough encouragement to speed his way over. Once reaching around the same area as Thomas had, just in their blind spot Logan realized Janus slowed way down and took a careful time setting down on the zord. Logan felt a jolt when the snake laid fully down on the rock. Janus let out a little hiss but exhaled in relief soon after.

"Nice job Janus." Thomas congratulated.

Remus practically squealed as he lifted Janus off his seat and spun him around.

"Alright, exit Maureen and follow me. Their artificial gravity is only effective at the top so stay close to each other, remember, try not to make too much noise." Thomas said, Logan could almost hear his smile.

Remus set his boyfriend down and Janus pressed some buttons that Logan could barely see. An opening revealed itself and Janus led their way down. When Logan's feet hit the solid space stone he quickly ran to join the others and their climb up to the shipping center. There was no time to contemplate the reality of Logan's current situation. He could only focus on saving Patton.

Finally they reached the top. The team followed Thomas behind some rocks and sat waiting. In the time they waited for a ship to pass the inspections Logan had beaten Roman in Rock-Paper-Scissors 36 times, Janus had carved 'yellow ranger is best' in the rocks they were hiding behind, and the whole team had to remind Remus not to take his helmet off three times. Finally a ship was cleared. Thomas waved his hand frantically for their attention and began trying to find a good place for the Rangers to get inside the ship. Finally he found it. Thomas led them in a dash toward the ship before it took off from the station. Thomas jumped on the ladder on the side of the ship, climbed to the top, and used his axe as a lever to help him open the top hatch. Thomas slipped inside and the others followed him swiftly. Logan was the last to land inside the ship and he looked around. It seemed metal boxes carrying assortments of items Logan had never seen before was the main cargo.

"When the ship lands we're going to need to incapacitate the guards that'll unload it and get the ship out of here fast." Thomas told them. "Then you all need to stay close to me as we search for the computer room. It won't have a door, and inside will be colder than other rooms. Its basically just one large computer screen that gets it's own room. They're not hard to find."

The Rangers figured they needed to find some hiding places in order to catch the guards by better surprise. Logan found a place between two crates and hid himself. Finally the ship stopped and seemed to land. The air in the compartment stilled in anticipation. A large door in the back opened up. Logan couldn't see anything but the shadows of two guards as they got closer to the Rangers. Roman was the first to strike. He dashed out of his hiding place and caught the first guard by surprise, lashing out with his sword. Thomas, who'd been opposite of Roman, also jumped out, this time slashing at the distracted second guard with his axe. The two guards were quickly overtaken and knocked out cold. Remus piled them inside the cargo ship and shut the door behind all the Rangers as they made their way out of the hanger.

Seeing as everyone had made it inside the ring itself Logan looked around for a way to get the ship out. Then he spied a helpful little control pad with the buttons labelled with pictures that clearly depicted what each one did.

"Well that's convenient." Logan remarked, pressing the button that indicated the hanger door opened. Just as it was supposed to, the hanger door opened and the ship was suctioned out of the ring and hurled off into space.

"Yeah, we noticed those too when we were up here the first time." Thomas said. "We figure the guards are so dumb they had to label all the buttons like that to prevent an accident or something.

"Well all the better for us." Logan shrugged.

The Rangers began a jog following Thomas. Logan made sure to stay light on his feet and follow Thomas' exact motions throughout the halls. They were so close, he couldn't take any chances. Logan took note of all their motions too, left, forward, forward, left, forward, right, stop, stop, forward, left. Every now and then the sounds of walking ahead or behind them came and the Rangers ducked quietly into the nearest empty area. Guards that looked not unlike the Witchlings they fought on Earth would march by. These guards seemed to be of the same or a similar species, only slimmer, wearing armor, and brandishing weapons. Other times, what Logan could only assume were the technicians, would walk by. These were far more humanoid, with actual skin and hair. They all seemed to be the same creature however, like the Witchlings it was like they were clones. Dark purple-ish skin and black hair, their clothes were white and gold however. In fact those colors seemed to be the whole color scheme of the ship. White with golden hues. It was jarring how clean it was. How the inside appeared so, not evil.

"I think I see the room." Thomas whispered as they ducked into another crevice and waited for some guards to pass. "Up there, the purple light coming from that entryway. That has to be one."

Logan and the others nodded and Thomas had them wait for a few more beats before signalling them to move. They made their way down the hall toward the computer room, however, as Logan was bringing up the rear of the group he heard something. Voices to be precise, familiar voices at that. Logan, deciding perhaps a risk here could benefit plenty, chose to follow those voices. This led him to a hallway, not far from the computer room. Down said hallway were a few doors until finally the final door, slightly ajar. Logan looked through the door and had to stop himself. Generals, lots of them, sat around a large table talking in various stages of anger or frustration. Logan recognized a few of them, Lord Zedro, Astromania, Poisandana, and even some that he had known from childhood, more famous battles that the previous Rangers fought. There were others that he didn't recognize, but most notably, there was no Virgilius.

"You're sure the kid hasn't shown any signs yet?" One of the Generals asked. He was one of the ones Logan recognized from when he was a kid. They called him Demon Maker. Red dry skin, pointy gnarly teeth, and metal horns resembling a classic demon's. Logan remembered Lauren waking him up in the night saying she'd had a nightmare about the Demon Maker coming to get her.

"Yes I'm sure." Astromania told him. Logan seethed when she talked. She'd been the one to take Patton, and Logan could only hope to make her pay.

"He doesn't start showing signs soon and he's gonna get killed." A different general said.

"They aren't going to be seventeen for a while. They'll show signs soon Magnot." Astromania sneered.

"I'm just sayin Astro, he-they don't show signs in the next month and she'll kill 'em." The general said again, a little easier.

"Why haven't they shown signs yet?" A female general asked the one next to her.

"I'm not entirely sure Jemina." The other general replied. "Hypatia was showing signs of being a Seer much younger. Though she was certainly advanced as a child, they should still be showing signs by now."

"Oh shut up Tortellini!" Astromania barked.

"That's . . . not my name."

"You know exactly why they aren't showing signs!" Astromania yelled. "Hypatia told us."

"Extreme stress and a spiritual unbalance can stunt growth." Poisandana said. Logan was almost shocked to hear her so quiet.

"And who knows what all that chemical shit that she's been pumping into them will do." Another general added.

"What are the first signs again?" Demon Maker asked.

"Headaches, shaky hands, pain in the arms, and heightened anxiety. After the first wave is over then comes the ability to do small things, create orbs and see flashes of the future, sometimes this includes seeing the future in dreams. Then the bad stuff; heart palpitations, cracking ribs, extreme depression, until finally they'll fall into a week long comatose state. During which their body has to decide whether it can handle being a seer, their hair will turn white, their irises will darken, and if they can handle it they'll wake up with the ability to see into the future and do, well, everything else seers can do." The 'Tortellini' general said.

"The anxiety thing is the only one that seems to be set in." Jemina rolled her eyes.

"They've always been like that." Poisandana said softly.

"What do we do?" Magnot asked.

The other generals looked to him, surprised.

"I was never close to the kid, but I don't want to see them die like that." Magnot said, almost sad. "They've been nicer since, well, since you brought that thing back with you. They're getting better, happier even. It's nice to see someone happy on this damned ship. We can't let her kill 'em now."

"I don't know what we can do." Astromania admitted after some silence.

"Well we can't let anything bad happen to that human." Poisandana said firmly. "They'd go catatonic."

Logan felt his chest ache when she mentioned Patton.

"What does that kid see in humans?" Demon Maker asked. "They're all so ugly."

"And annoying." A different general chimed in.

Suddenly a loud sound went off overhead. Logan didn't know where it was coming from but it sounded almost like an alarm. The generals all jumped out of their seats looking around at one another before making a move for the door. Logan jumped through the nearest open door fast and hid himself in the small room. He heard the stomping of the generals as they ran down the hallway. Then there was only the sound of the alarm overhead. Logan was about to check to see if he was in the clear when he heard the voices.

"Astro wait." A woman called.

"Mallina," Astromania replied. "What is it?"

"Hypatia." Mallina replied. "Is-is she still looking for Hypatia?"

"I don't know." Astromania told her sadly. "I'm sure she is but-"

"It's been years I know. I just, you know, I have hope."

"I know you do." Astromania told her. "I'll see if I can figure anything out later. How about that?"

"Thank you."

Logan heard their footsteps pass and waited a little bit longer. When he figured the coast was clear Logan snuck out of the door. He looked down the hall and back the other way, when he saw no generals in the area Logan started making his way back to the other Rangers. Suddenly a woman stepped out of one of the doorways, looking at something in her hand. Astromania. Only this time pink rather than green. She sighed calmly as she stared at something in her palm before lifting it up to her forehead and placing it just below her hairline. Then she noticed Logan. Astromania showed no expression as she turned toward Logan, she simply slowed her breathing then looked around her. After she appeared to confirm no one else was in the vicinity she turned around and walked off.

Logan stood there for a few more seconds, stunned and confused, but gathered himself and ran off to find the others. He had to tell them what had happened, and what he'd heard. Surely Thomas would know what they were talking about. He was about to race off when his friends found him first.

"Blue!" Roman whisper-yelled to Logan.

Logan whipped around and ran over to the other Rangers.

"Guys I just saw, uhm- I-I don't even know-"

"We know where Pink is." Roman exclaimed.

"You do?!" Logan stopped, his heart was pounding.

"Come on!" Remus signalled. They all took off running.

"Thomas set an alarm off in the opposite direction of where they're keeping him so hopefully it'll be easier to get him." Janus explained.

Logan nodded and looked over to Thomas who was running ahead. Logan couldn't believe they were this close. They were so, so close to him. Patton could be right around this corner. Patton could be right in front of them. Patton could be in Logan's arms at any moment. He could almost cry. Forward, forward, forward, left, forward, forward, right, stop. They stopped so abruptly Logan almost ran into Roman ahead of him. Logan looked past his friends, there in front of them was a door. It looked like any other door they'd seen, only this one felt different to Logan. He knew Patton had to be behind it. Surely he was there, surely Logan would see him. He'd dreamed about seeing Patton again, thought about it over and over possibly thousands of times in the weeks they've been apart. Why was he suddenly so scared?

"How do we get the door open?" Roman asked. "There's no door knob and no buttons on the side."

"We'll use force." Remus summoned his weapon.

"That may not be the best idea." Logan said. "The loud noises could alert someone."

"Well we gotta get in somehow." Remus replied, disappointed.

"Actually-" Thomas started.

"The alarm's still going off, it'll block out the sound of us breaking in." Janus offered.

"We probably shouldn't-"

"Roman, Remus, you two are the strongest, try to get the door open." Janus told them. The twins nodded and moved their shoulders to the door.

"Wait, please don't-" Thomas tried again.

"On three." Roman told his brother.

"Okay sure go ahead." Thomas shook his head.

"One, two, three!" The twins ran forward ready to bust the door down.

They ran forward and just as they were about to hit the door, it swung open. The twins ran into the room and fell on the floor. Logan wasted no time running into the room with Thomas. There he was, helmet off, eyes wide, hair a mess, tearing up, and unbelievably perfect.

"Thomas?" Patton asked softly. "Logan?"

"Patton." Logan sighed. "You're-you're-"

Patton apparently didn't waste time either. He ran forward-stepping over the twins-and hugged Thomas tightly. The twins got up and everyone started taking their helmets off. Patton moved from Thomas to the twins, hugging them both, all of them in tears. When Patton's grip loosened on the twins Janus ran forward, hurtling himself at Patton, almost taking the boy down. Patton laughed with Janus. Finally the two let go, Logan had taken his helmet off and got a good look at Patton in front of him. He was crying a lot, he looked almost wild. Patton took a step toward Logan, he could tell Patton wanted to hug him but was waiting for Logan to give the ok. Logan broke at that, he wrapped his arms around Patton's waist and buried his face in Patton's neck. Logan let himself cry. Patton still smelled like strawberries.

"Hey Lo." Patton said so only Logan could hear.

"Patton." Logan sobbed.

"Gosh I've missed you so much." Patton said shakily.

"Let's get you home." Logan pulled away so he could look into Patton's face.

"Let's." Patton nodded. "Wait. Wait wait."

"What?" Logan asked.

"Virgey." Patton called. "C'mere, You have to meet them."

Logan was confused, but Patton put a hand on Logan's cheek and smiled at him before letting go and walking past all of them. At the door stood someone Logan had never seen. Small, chubby, dark hair that covered their eyes, the way they stood was guarded, trying to assure themself.

"Don't be scared Virgey c'mon. You already know them." Patton tried, reaching out a little.

That was when two guards appeared in the doorway.

"No." Patton said angrily.

"Patton-"

Patton summoned his bow and arrow and pointed it at the guards as they grabbed Patton's friend.

"Let them go."

"Pat no." They tried. "You need to save your energy."

"I'm not letting them take you." Patton's stance was shaky, he was weak, but he stood his ground.

That was when the guard pulled out a weapon it was filled with electricity and the guard shoved it into the back of the person's neck. They let out a howl of pain and dropped limply into the arms of the guard who was holding them.

"No!" Patton let an arrow loose, it sunk into the neck of one of the guards but the guard didn't react.

It simply stepped closer to Patton who didn't back down, only stood there trying to control his shaking. The guard shoved the electric weapon at Patton's chest and Logan watched in horror as Patton screamed and fell to the ground, not unconscious, but so weak.

"Please, don't." Patton said weakly.

They all moved at once. Remus went after the guards and swung his mace hard but the door was closed and all he hit was metal. Roman and Janus looked around at the room, trying to find a way out. Thomas and Logan went to Patton who was still shaking on the floor.

"Please, Thomas, Logan, we have to go get them. We have to get them out of here. Now you-you don't know what she does to them-they-"

"Patton please, we need to get you out of here and back home." Thomas said cradling Patton's head.

"No we need to get Virgil and get them away from her!"

"Patton!" Logan stopped him. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to yell at you but please. I promise we'll get them but I can't lose you again. You need to slow down."

Patton didn't speak. He looked up at Logan-his face bright red. Patton looked away and nodded. There was a piercing sound from above them, it wasn't too disturbing but Patton flinched hard enough for Logan to know that meant something bad. That was when Logan noticed that a screen had appeared in front of them. There was nothing on it yet, but from Patton's fearful expression he knew this wasn't going to be anything good.

"This is just my lucky day!"

Logan wanted to cower away. That voice was so familiar. It had plagued his nightmares, kept him up at night, tore him down, and terrified him to his core. The Dragon Witch.

"Not only did I have a wonderful breakfast, courtesy of my new chef, but the Power Rangers fell right into my trap!" She laughed. The screen flickered, until the face of a woman was shown to them. "Just so . . . lucky."

Logan and the others stared. Her skin was pale to an almost sickly state. Her whole face was defined, high cheekbones, sharp jaw, angular lips, and the dark almost metallic looking hair. Her eyes were a terrifying white that Logan recognized from when she had possessed Virgilius' body. She wore a black suit accented with golds and whites and grinned maliciously at the reaction she was getting from the Rangers. She reveled in their fear.

"Tell me, do you like the suit?" She asked. "I figured I would wear something a little more earthly for such an occasion. I did have an evening dress picked out, but when this was delivered to me, oh I just knew it was the perfect way to make an entrance."

She got no response. Logan was frankly too scared to speak. He was overwhelmed. Angry even. How could he possibly think this plan would work. It was foolish, half-assed, made up practically on the spot. So much could have gone wrong yet it didn't. He should have asked himself why Astromania didn't kill him there. Why it was so easy to find Patton. She had set up everything. She had planned everything. And Logan was stupid enough to fall for it. He was blinded by his hope.

"Oh please don't tell me you thought this rescue mission would work." The Dragon Witch licked her lips. "No, no. I let a Power Ranger and the morphers slip through my grasp once, I'm not letting it happen again.

Logan looked at the others. Each of them with various expressions of shock or fear on their faces. However, Patton's pale, petrified state made a rush of emotion fill Logan's chest. He was angry, saddened, vengeful, and so, so sick of being scared.

"Now tell me, which of you summoned a morpher? You couldn't have all gotten here with one morpher could you? Surely you're not that reckless. Wait, wait, let me guess, Blue! Your love for Pink was just so overwhelming you were able to summon one of the most powerful weapons in the universe! Just to save him!" She fained a swoon. "Yes, yes I know all about your interpersonal relationships. Really I don't care to. I don't like building any kind of connection. But I must say, you all are very interesting to hear about. Kudos to you for that I suppose."

"Mom!?" A voice that belonged to someone off screen spoke weakly.

"What the hell is he doing here!!" The Dragon Witch yelled, she turned away and her face hardened.

"Stop please!!!" The voice called to her. "Please don't hurt them!!"

"Shock him and get him out of my sight!!!" She barked.

There was a loud commotion, sounds of fighting, and then the Dragon Witch was standing, she walked away from the camera but still in frame.

"Mother you have to stop!! They haven't done anything!!"

"Ugh," The Dragon Witch rolled her shoulders back. "I suppose a parent is truly the only one who can punish their child."

In the Dragon Witch's hand appeared a golden staff, she raised it in front of herself and a beam of some sort of energy blasted from the end striking something off screen. Logan knew what it was the moment their scream filled the air. Once the screaming stopped the Dragon Witch pulled back and motioned to another person off screen. The feed cut and the room went silent.

Logan looked around. Confused and scared, silently hoping someone would be able to explain away what had just happened. Then a gas started filling the room. It was like a cloud was forming right in front of him. The Rangers all gathered themselves together, as far away from the gas as possible, each of them shaking or still as the dead. Janus was still looking for a way out but his frantic behavior told Logan he wasn't going to find anything in time. Remus and Roman put themselves between the gas and everyone else. Offering themselves first. When their bodies dropped unconscious on the floor Logan felt himself begin to cry. This couldn't be it. Surely they couldn't have failed this badly.

Janus was next, He had gone to hold Remus close and collapsed because of it. Thomas let Patton go and like the twins put himself between the gas and the boys. He knew it was hopeless, Logan knew it was hopeless, but that was what humans did he supposed. Anything to not feel hopeless.

Logan didn't see Thomas fall. Patton grabbed his face and turned it toward him. They were both in tears. Both shaking. Both terrified.

"I want you to be the last thing I see." Patton said.

"We'll see each other again Patton." Logan told him, he didn't know which of the two he was trying to convince.

"I know." Patton smiled. "I know we will. But it's easier to imagine you happy when I get to see your face."

Logan smiled, he guessed he wanted to help Patton's imagination just a little. Patton laughed sadly and wiped a tear from Logan's cheek.

"Do me a favor and find me in your next life Logan. Please?"

"Patton please, this isn't the end." Logan assured.

"I like the way you make me feel Lo." Patton told him. "I want to feel that way again."

Logan felt himself going numb, he tried to speak but nothing came out, he tried to move but felt himself go rigid. That was when his vision failed, his senses all began to fail him one by one until Logan finally, almost mercifully, gave way to exhaustion.


	23. Believe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unusual ally makes their move to help the Rangers out of a sticky situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Roman centric, reunions, hugging, Roman is a dum himbo and we love that here
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: kidnapping, escape from said kidnapping, mentions of not being fed, crying, yelling, fear, swearing, mentions of past hurt, some angst, insinuation of parental abuse

Roman couldn't help but hum. Humming kept him sane. Dance With You from The Prom was the only thing that assured Roman in that moment that he would not in fact burst into a million pieces. He was sitting down on the hard white floor, cross legged and rocking side to side a little. The walls around him were white, startling white, to his left was a wall that contained the only door, a door that was much like the one they'd tried to break down to get to Patton. In front of Roman was a window, one that showed Roman the inside of a cell much like his own.

On the other side of this window Logan was banging on the door, throwing his body at the door, doing anything he can think of to try and get it open. The noise was startling to Roman at first but after a while he'd grown used to it. They'd already tried to break the window, but that proved just as difficult as the door.

Roman ran a nervous hand through his hair and started blinking a lot. Logan was getting more and more frustrated and it was affecting both of them now. Roman started singing out loud. Unruly Heart. He liked that song. Singing had worked in calming him down before. Why wouldn't it work now? Why wasn't it working now?

The white walls were starting to make Roman feel like one of the mental patients he'd seen in the movies.

"Logan can you-can you stop?" Roman tried, he started shuffling toward the window.

"Stop trying to get out of here? No way. C'mon Roman we have to-"

"Logan, I don't like to give up, but you're getting so frustrated and it's really not helping." Roman was at the window now, he looked to see Logan inspecting the door a little more hesitant now that Roman was asking him to stop.

"Roman we've gotta get out of here soon, I'm not waiting to die in this-"

"Just take a break please? You're stressing me out and more stress is the last thing either of us need right now." Roman tried again.

Logan sighed, he walked over to the window and sat down like Roman, his head falling against the glass. Roman went back to singing quietly.

"Roman, are-are we ever going to see the others again?" Logan asked.

Roman stopped his singing and looked over at Logan through the window. "Yeah. We-we've got to."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I'm trying to." Roman said honestly. "Bef-before I blacked out Remus told me to remember him. He said our parents wouldn't give a damn if he disappeared, but if just one person did that'd be enough. If I did, that would be enough."

Logan was quiet.

"Who knew my brother could be so poetic." Roman tried to smile but it hurt. Inside and out, it hurt to show any emotion.

"Patton and I were the last to go." Logan said quietly, as if he wasn't sure he wanted Roman to hear. "Patton made me look at him and he told me that I had to find him in the next life. That he liked the way I make him feel, and-and he wanted to feel that way again."

Roman sucked in a breath. If he had any reason to cry he figured that was it, but he knew his friend. Logan wouldn't want Roman to dwell on the romance of such a sentence, especially considering both of them were starting to doubt if they'd ever see the boy again.

"I didn't know Patton believed in reincarnation." Roman tried. He just wanted to keep his friend talking.

"I didn't either." Logan admitted. "What do you think he'd be reincarnated as?"

"Hmm." Roman was thankful for the distraction. "Well if we're going for anything I think he'll be a dog. Maybe a cat, but definitely one of those big floppy eared family dogs."

Logan smiled a little.

"But, if we're going for human, I think Patton would be a cottage core lesbian. Live in the forest, have his own garden with flowers and fruit. That kind of thing." Roman smiled.

"Cottage core?" Logan asked.

"Oh, yeah it's like this aesthetic of living sort of old-timey. Few people, grow your own food, arts and crafts, that kind of thing." Roman tried to explain.

"Ah." Logan nodded. "What would you want to be in your next life?"

"Hmm," Roman thought a little harder. He'd always tried to make the best of this life, he didn't think about the next one. "I'd want to be born in the city. Like San Francisco or something. Live on the coast my whole life, I don't know. You?"

"I wouldn't mind something like that." Logan told him. "I don't find crowded areas too appealing, but anywhere other than suburbian Florida sounds nice."

"Do you think we'll be friends then too?" Roman asked.

"I'm not sure. I bet if we ever met we would be, but there's a lot of people in the world, and even more possibilities."

"Yeah." Roman put his head down.

"But!" Logan said suddenly. "I'm happy I know you now! I'm happy I'm stuck next to you in these cells. Who better to talk to than my best friend? Right?"

"Right."

The boys put their hands on the glass. Oh the things Roman would give just to have this glass disappear.

Suddenly a loud sound came from inside Logan's cell. The boys popped up and both watched as the door opened into an even brighter lit hallway. Roman and Logan looked at each other in fear before someone stepped into the room.

It was that guy. The one Patton had been locked up with. The one Patton had tried to protect and tried to introduce to the others.

They were short, really short, no more than five foot three. Chubby, kind of dark skin, and even darker, more unruly curly hair that hid their eyes. They wore a dark cloak that covered most of the rest of what they were wearing.

"Logan!" They called, they sounded relieved. It was unnerving. "Good."

"Who are you?" Logan asked, staying very much away from this person.

"Uhh, yeah that's not something that's easily explainable, but I'm a frie-uh, I'm here to break you out." They said.

"You are?"

"Mhm yeah, so is there anyone with you cause we've gotta hurry before the guards notice I'm gone." They told Logan.

"How can I trust you?" Logan asked.

"Patton trusts me." They told him.

"That's not a very high bar." Logan replied.

"Do you have any other choice?" They crossed their arms. "In case you haven't noticed you've been locked in this room for more than a day with no food or water and that's exactly how she plans to keep you until you die and she gets your morpher. So if you want to stay then be my guest. I'll just tell Patton we're gonna have to leave your decaying body because you're a stubborn little bitch."

"The bitch part was uncalled for, but I suppose I really don't have any other choice." Logan conceded. "Roman is in the cell to my left."

They nodded and walked out of Roman's sight. His cell door began opening much like Logan's and before Roman stood the person.

"Alright you two need to listen to me very carefully cause this is the only time I can say it. Everything on this ship is extremely noise sensitive, you're going to have to stay as quiet as possible and follow my movements exactly." They explained. "After we've found your friends a ship will take you to your zords and you can get the hell out of here but you're going to have to be extremely careful. The slightest wrong movement can set off her entire army."

Logan and Roman nodded and exited their cells. Awaiting their next instructions. Down the brightly lit hallway was a single door that this person started creeping towards. As they did so Roman noticed a bag hanging across their body like a messenger bag and he remembered something Patton had said.

"You're not coming with us?" Roman asked quietly.

"Pfft, no of course not." They told him.

"What's with the bag then?"

"It's-" They stopped themself. "It's not for me, it's for Patton. Now shut up and let me save you."

Roman figured staying quiet was the best choice. The three of them snuck down the hallway and this mysterious person opened the door in front of them. They didn't waste any time sneaking out of the doorway and quietly down this much larger white hall. Doors similar to the ones they had just exited line the wall to Roman's left and he couldn't help but wonder about the other innocent creatures trapped there. Possibly even other heroes. The three kept their pace up the whole way until suddenly-the person Roman was now calling 'Short Bastard' in his head- stopped. Roman almost ran into them but thankfully stopped himself in time.

"Shit was it nika or nikyo?" They whispered anxiously. "Screw it, let's hope it was nika."

"What?" Roman leaned down and whispered back, confused.

Without looking the short bastard clamped their hand over Roman's mouth and turned to open the closest door. They led the two Rangers down a hall that was eerily similar to the one just outside of Roman's cell. They didn't go far however because after shortie closed the door they walked up to the closest cell door and put their palms flat against it. Roman and Logan watched as a hologram like screen appeared, showing the inside of an empty cell. Apparently after seeing this they moved on to the next one, repeating the process. Empty cell after empty cell until finally the screen appeared and inside said cell was Remus Reeves himself.

"Finally!" Short Bastard sighed and opened the door.

"Who's there?!" Remus yelled.

"Remus!!" Roman and Logan called at the same time, rushing to him.

"Roman? Logan? What-" Remus looked past them to the mystery short person in the doorway and decided to not ask any questions, instead saying "Patton's in the cell next to me."

Shortie nodded quickly and raced to the door over. The newly rejoined Power Rangers walked out of Remus' cell and huddled together asking each other if they were alright and more.

"Damn it!" Shortie yelled angrily. "Of course she made it practically impossible for me to get in."

"What?!" Roman asked.

"What do you mean?" Logan also asked.

"I mean she's not dumb and getting to Patton is gonna be difficult." They snapped. "Hang on."

They walked into Remus' cell and looked around. Unlike with Roman's cell there was no window into the cell over. Just blank walls. However, upon further inspection they found a vent on the top of one of the walls and shouted.

"Patton!! Can you hear me!?"

"Yeah!! I can!!" Patton replied.

"Alright, I'm gonna need you to back up as far as possible and shield yourself!" They instructed.

"O-okay!!" Patton said back.

Roman watched as they stepped back a little bit from the wall and took a deep breath in.

"Let's hope I've still got some." They said mostly to themself.

They curled in on themself, hands clenched and body tense, their chest and hands started glowing a very familiar purple. They then relaxed their body stretching out and standing straight up. Roman couldn't see too well but he knew those eyes. Virgilius' six purple glowing eyes, only this time they were a little muted, as if they were a little less powerful. Then suddenly they shoved their hands forward and out came a bright purple fire blast that shook the walls until finally it broke a hole big enough that someone could step through it.

Then they fell to the floor.

"Virge!" Patton yelled.

The Rangers raced over to their body. Patton sat down on his knees and pulled them close, whispering something Roman couldn't hear. Their eyes opened slowly, and they blinked a few times before sitting up and shaking their hands.

"Oh gods I feel like shit now."

"Hey, hey, no swearing." Patton giggled.

"Gimme a break? I'm literally getting you out of imprisonment." They laughed.

"Fine, but just this once." Patton booped them on the nose and helped them up from the floor.

"Patton." Logan whispered.

"Lo!" Patton turned abruptly to the other three. "Roman, Remus! Oh my gosh!"

The Rangers all raced over to hug each other. They let their embrace last just long enough before Shortie-or Virge apparently-coughed for their attention.

"This whole reunion is really sweet but we've gotta get moving. These hallways aren't sound sensitive but that blast is still gonna call some attention." Virge told them.

"We've got to get to Janus!" Remus called out suddenly and began racing down the hall.

"Hold up there mustache!" Virge followed Remus quickly and stopped him from leaving the hallway. "The hallway out there is super sound sensitive, you have to step as close to the places I step as you possibly can. Got it?"

Remus looked a little disappointed but nodded.

Virge opened the door and continued moving down the hallway, their pace up a little. Remus followed right behind them, and Roman after him. Behind him Roman snuck glances as Patton and Logan snuck their way around not-so-subtly trying to hold each others' hands. It made Roman smile. Even in space those two found a way to be gay as shit. Though Roman couldn't help but feel a little disappointed he didn't have someone of his own.

Roman faced forward again making sure his motions were careful and precise-just like at home. However his mind was racing. He was so confused. Who in the world-or out of this world he supposed-was this Virge? Of course his first thought was 'Virge sure sounds like a nickname for Virgilius' but that couldn't possibly be. Virgilius was tall, stocky, strong, cocky, self-assured. This Virge was short, stout, had a high voice, and seemed generally nervous about everything. They didn't give off the same vibe that Virgilius did. There was also the purple energy blast and the six purple eyes, but even that was different from Virgilius just enough for Roman to logically think they weren't the same person. Ha, logical thinking, Roman didn't do that anywhere other than in math class.

This time Roman did run into the person in front of him. Luckily it was his brother and while Remus certainly would not hesitate to elbow Roman for being unaware, Virge seemed more likely to screech, kick Roman in the shins, and then stab him. For once, Remus was the obvious choice.

As anticipated Roman received an elbow to the ribs from his brother, what was not anticipated was the giggle that action got from Virge in front of them. This short alien opened the door with a small smile and led them inside. They closed the door after Patton brought up the last of the group and went cell by cell searching for the last two. Finally they seemed to have found someone and opened the door revealing Thomas who raced out and hugged them kindly.

"Thank you." Thomas said softly.

"Yeah man, no problem." Virge replied awkwardly.

"Is Janus with you?" Remus asked hurriedly.

"Yeah he's right in there." Thomas let go of the hug and painted to the cell next to him.

Virge moved and repeated the process. Once the door was open Remus raced inside and a loud 'oof-' could be heard from Janus.

"Remus?" Janus asked.

"Oh Bumblebee you're never leaving my side again." Remus told him. The two exited the cell hand in hand.

"I can live with that." Janus said back.

"I mean it Jan. I will be a leech attached to your dangerously sexy being." Remus said with a teasing grin.

"Ew." Roman rolled his eyes and looked away.

"That's all of you? Roman, Remus, Logan, Patton, Janus, and Thomas." Virge pointed at each of the Rangers as they said their names. "Good, now follow me quickly and quietly."

"How do you know all our names?" Roman asked.

"Patton told them Roman." Logan explained.

"Well that and you all are so bad at keeping your identities secret. Almost as bad as you are at fighting." Virge said with a look. "Well, other than Thomas, Patton had to tell me about him. Kudos to you for that by the way."

"Uh thanks." Thomas said with a confused smile.

"Okay that comment about our fighting was rude." Roman defended.

"But accurate." Virge mumbled cheekily. "Now shut up Red, you're all getting out of here."

Before Roman could comprehend the way they'd said 'Red', Virge had opened the door and was leading the way out.

Roman was once again right behind them, with Remus and Janus behind him, Patton, Logan, and finally Thomas. Roman wasn't sure how long they'd been walking, all he knew was this hallway was starting to look familiar. It wasn't until he heard Patton's pained gasp that he realized however they were passing by his old holding cell. Roman turned around to Patton and went over to help as Patton appeared petrified with fear.

"Pat." Virge whispered next to Roman.

Roman jumped, when did they get here!, he thought.

"Don't worry c'mon. I promise you'll never have to see it again." Virge reached out a little, they seemed a little wary of comforting Patton. "We gotta keep moving."

"It's okay Patton." Logan whispered.

Patton nodded hurriedly and looked toward Roman. The taller boy gave a caring smile and extended his hand. Patton took it in a rush and Roman turned around nodded to Virge to continue leading them along. What did she do to you Patton? Roman asked in his head. He turned around again to look back at Patton and saw Patton and Logan practically attached at the hip and holding hands. He almost wanted to squeal. Not only was he happy Patton was okay, but Logan had never been so comfortable with physical contact before.

Virge in front of them stopped walking and motioned for everyone to get closer. Roman recognized it as the entry they'd gone through after hitching a ride from the shipping center. Virge opened the door and rushed everyone inside.

"Okay, it's not noise sensitive in here but it is motion detected once you pass the barrier there," Virge pointed to a rift in the metal on the floor. "Pass that and they'll know we're here when we shouldn't be, so once the next ship lands you're gonna have to hurry."

"We're gonna hurry." Patton said, dropping Roman's and Logan's hands to walk over to Virge.

"No Pat, you're."

"Virgey, you're coming with us." Patton said firmly.

"No, I'm not." Virge said softly. "I can't."

"No I won't hear it. You're coming. I'm not leaving you here. To be experimented on and-and messed with and-"

"Pat please!" Virge stopped him. They began taking off their bag. "Here, this is for you."

"I'm not taking that!" Patton told them and turned around.

"Patton please." Virge stepped toward him.

"No! No, you-you have to come with us you have to!!" Patton was starting to tear up. "I won't leave you here with her."

"I'm doing this for you. When I'm here I can keep you all safe!" Virge pleaded. "Just go."

"The ship!" Janus interrupted.

Roman turned and saw that indeed a ship was quickly coming their way. The Rangers started preparing themselves. Roman took a deep breath, trying to keep himself steady and focused but he kept glancing over at Patton. His friend's face showed so many emotions. Scared, tired, excited, hopeful, but mostly conflicted. Roman wished he was like Logan, he always knew what to do, or Janus, he always knew how to turn a situation around, or even Remus, Remus didn't give a shit about anything and yet everything worked out for him in the end. Everything worked out for his friends, they're better fighters, getting better grades, living better lives. Roman looked over, Logan and Patton had moved closer together, the small glances were all the two needed for comfort. While Remus and Janus were whispering to each other, no doubt something only the two of them would find sweet. Roman couldn't help but wish he had what they had. The Patton to his Logan, the Janus to his Remus. He was happy for his friends, but there was still that feeling of jealousy in the back of his throat, it made him ashamed.

"Shit!!"

Roman turned to See Virge staring behind them all, a look of sheer terror on their face. Roman spun just as fast to see the door opening and guards trying to get into the room. They carried those sticks that had shocked Virge into unconsciousness.

"Oh my god." Patton said quietly, stepping back.

"There's not enough time!" Virge called.

"I can hold them off for a while but-"

"No!" Virge interrupted Logan. "No you've all got to get on that ship, this isn't really a time to take chances."

"Then what are we gonna do?" Thomas asked.

"This." Virge said firmly.

They ran over to the side of the room and opened a compartment. Inside was a large metal rope that Virge pulled out of the compartment and ran over to Remus. They began tying it around Remus' waist, followed by Thomas, then Janus, then they called over Patton and Logan and tied it around them respectively. Finally they got to Roman and started tying it around his waist.

"What are you doing?" Roman asked.

"Trusting the Power Rangers." Virge replied.

"I thought you said this wasn't a time to take chances?" Roman half asked, half pointed out.

"I'm not." Virge looked up at Roman, finishing off the knot and looking up at Roman with a smile. That smile was familiar to Roman in a strange way, but it was foreign on this tanned chubby face.

Virge asked everyone to get together and began yelling over the sound of the guards breaking down the door. "When I'm done talking I need all of you to put your helmets on! That ship is going to sense that there are people in the hangar and won't land, it'll just hover outside the hangar! This rope should be long enough for Remus to reach the ship! What's going to happen is I'm going to open the hangar door, that'll suck all the guards out of the hangar and you guys as well! Roman and I will be able to keep you all attached to the ship, but Remus, you're going to have to open the side door of the ship and get in, then once you're secure we're going to let go! And you all are going to have to pull yourselves inside the ship! These ships don't have pilots so once you're all inside and you've closed the door, the ship will register you all as cargo and take you back to the shipping center where your zords are!"

"This is insane!" Janus yelled.

"How do you know this'll work?!" Logan asked worriedly.

"You've done it before!" Virge told him. "Well, sort of!"

"We did it before!" Thomas said. "Me and-and Talyn and Joan and the others, we did this before!"

"When?!!" Patton called.

"Put your helmets on, they're almost through!!" Virge yelled. "You're going to feel a lot of whiplash and-and it'll hurt but you can do this!"

The Rangers put their helmets on and Virge motioned for Roman to follow him. The Red Ranger obliged and grabbed the inside of a compartment Virge had opened for him.

"Wait, Virge you don't have a helmet!" Thomas yelled.

"I'll be fine Thomas, just worry about each other!" Virge told him.

Finally the guards busted through, they started swarming their way inside and just as one looked ready to strike Virge, they slammed their hand down on a button. The hangar door opened fast and the guards were swept away faster, sucked into the vacuum of space. Remus and the other Rangers flew up and were almost pulled away as well, but Roman and Virge kept them held down.

The ship did just as Virge had said it would and stopped, right above Remus. The Green Ranger stretched out, reaching and reaching until finally he got a hold of the ship and started climbing. Roman watched on edge as Remus' foot slipped and he squeaked in worry but kept his body flush with the ship. Soon grabbing a hold of the side door and opening it with a heave. Remus found his way inside and told them that he was secure.

"He's ready." Roman told Virge.

"Take the bag Roman. Make sure Pat opens it please." Virge started taking off the bag.

Roman then made a split-second decision. One that he knew would change everything, but he couldn't possibly fathom how.

"Make sure yourself." Roman told them.

"What?"

Roman grabbed Virge with one hand, wrapping it around Virge's back and pulling them away from their hold, then let go of his own. The two flew back into space, clutching each other tightly. Roman felt the rope tighten around his stomach violently and then, he landed on top of something, or someone. When Roman opened his eyes he was on his back looking up at a purple metal ceiling and sounds of yelling around him. He was still holding Virge and could only see the top of their hair.

"Close it!!" Logan yelled next to Roman.

Roman didn't see what happened next but suddenly the rushing sounds of wind stopped causing Roman's ears to ring a little and the air in the ship stilled. Everyone was breathing hard. Roman could feel Virge's chest rise and fall in quick, shaky breaths. Roman's senses came back to him quickly, he could see Virge's dark hair, the metal ship they were in, the other Rangers and their own rising and falling chests. He could smell his own sweat and breath, and something he hadn't smelled before. He didn't know how to describe it. His mouth tasted like metal and he felt his heart pounding in his head. That was when he realized just how warm Virge was. As Roman looked down at Virge's hair, something in him felt complete. Roman didn't even know it was off until the little puzzle piece in his body clicked into place. In the second Roman felt just a little more complete, he felt a sense of clarity and knew there were other pieces still not in their place. 

Then Virge was gone. They'd hoisted themself up and sat on their knees looking around.

"What did you-" Virge was blinking rapidly. "Wh-why would you . . . why did you do that?!"

"I-I-" Roman stopped himself. Why did he do that? "I don't know."

Roman didn't speak the rest of the way. As the other Rangers yelled and scrambled around Roman stayed silent, wondering why he'd saved Virge. What loyalty did Roman have to them? What had possessed Roman to do such a thing? He just sat there, staring around at the others until the ship got to that outpost. Remus opened the door and started helping the Rangers and Virge out. They all made their way to the Zords and split, Remus and Virge with Janus, while Roman, Logan, and Patton went with Thomas. Patton seemed a little nervous about Virge being alone with those two-and Roman didn't blame him.

As soon as everyone was inside, Thomas took off. Quickly followed by Janus. Roman sat on the floor by Thomas' feet looking over at Patton and Logan. The two stood by one of the windows, looking out. Well, Patton was looking out at the stars, Logan was staring at Patton.

"You know," Patton said softly. Roman wondered if Patton was meaning to say this on coms. The way he was talking, Roman thought maybe this was something meant for Logan alone. "All that time locked up, in that room, I never saw the stars. Not once."

"Never?" Logan asked, just as fragile.

"Not until now." Patton's voice cracked. He took in a breath. "And it's so, so pretty."

That was when Roman let himself cry. No noise left him, just tears. He didn't want the others to know he was crying. He had to be strong for them. But this moment, alone, was for him.

It was quite a while before they landed. Space's infinite black background against sparkling stars turned to a dark blue and purple sky as they entered Earth's atmosphere. It was night time, and the Zords had landed within the walls of the government compound they had taken off from. They were about an hour away from Thomas' place. From Roman's home. From his bed. When Thomas opened the door out of the black zord Roman practically ran to it. He and Logan had grabbed Patton's hands and were pulling him along, laughing and crying as they finally got their friend home.

Roman watched as Patton's pink boot hit the grass of the compound. Patton practically threw his helmet off, exposing his wider than life smile and watery bright eyes. Logan apparently couldn't take it, he ran forward and hurled himself at Patton in a crushing, laughing hug. Roman quickly followed. Then Thomas, Remus, and Janus. All of them crying and laughing and filled with so many unbelievable emotions. Roman didn't want too, but when Thomas told them all Patton could get suffocated, he backed off along with the others.

Roman looked around at the people that surrounded him. Their tears, their smiles, their rosey cheeks and ruffled hair, it was all so ugly and perfect.

"Virgil!" Patton yelled, letting go of Logan and Roman and running forward.

Roman watched happily as Patton enveloped this strange person in a hug.

"We're safe!" Patton told them.

"Are you sure?" Virge asked.

"I'm so, so sure." Patton told them.

Roman didn't know how-he'd never had Patton's innate ability to read people-but for some reason, he could just see on Virge's face that they believed him.


	24. Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil has some thoughts about these not-so-strangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Virgil centric(HOLY SHIT RIGHT), poly relationship, happy times, Virgil talking, Virgil being there, ahhh, constellations, star signs with the help of GSA lesbians and minimal research, I made my own pantheon of gods!!, Emile and Remy, Renette and Renae and Roland, stimming, Virgil has curly hair f you
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: swearing, suggestive flirting, slightly uncomfortable flirting, kissing, polyamorous suggestions, slight mention of anti-depressants, slight mention of ptsd, mentions of food and being unable to eat/eat properly,

Virgil never knew how good it felt to breathe. Of course they'd taken breaths before, they had to in order to survive. But pulling air into his lungs and exhaling it had never felt so good. So freeing. They supposed that's just how Earth made you feel. Warm hair against their skin, cool grass tickling the back of their neck, a breeze flowing through their curly hair, all of it made Virgil feel so unbelievably free.

"What do you call that one?" Remus asked, making a sort of outline with his finger, following the stars that formed a constellation.

"Nonrath." Virgil told him. "She's the goddess of a lot of things, magic, dreams, more ethereal stuff like that. But I believe you call that one Virgo? Yeah?"

"Mhm." Janus nodded. "What about Leo, that one over there, what's that one?"

"That's Iris-Nonrath, or Iris-Non. She's Nonrath's animal form, a fuergon." Virgil explained.

"What's a fuergon?" The two Rangers asked at the same time.

"They're ancient animals, like if a bear were ten times the size and had golden teeth and claws. We call them fuergon. And gods and goddesses are said to be able to take the shape of the animal they're closest to." Virgil said.

They'd been playing this makeshift game for some time. Remus or Janus would give Virgil a name for something in the galaxy and ask what Virgil had called it. Virgil quite liked it.

"Like Power Rangers and their zords." Janus noted.

"Yeah. See there's a theory that the gods and goddesses are not gods or goddesses at all, they're simply just the mythologized retellings of ancient Power Rangers. It honestly explains a lot of mythos." Virgil said.

"Ooo, what about Scorpio? I'm a scorpio ya know. What do you call that one?" Remus asked.

"The sort of curved one?" Virgil asked.

"Yeah!"

"That one's called Anglo." Virgil said. "I love that one."

"Why?" Remus turned on his side toward Virgil and looked at them expectantly.

"Yeah tell us about it." Janus did the same as Remus.

Virgil looked at the two, expecting to feel overwhelmed, anxious even, but instead they just wanted to keep talking. Keep smiling.

"Well the story of Anglo and Pyravates is a classic. Basically they were these two gods; Anglo was a passionate adventurer who blessed those going on heroic journeys, and Pyravates was a gentle loner who blessed authors and poets in the making. They were basically complete opposites who never spoke to one another until one day. A favorite hero of the two went missing. She'd been blessed by both gods and the two were devastated to hear she had been gone. So they teamed up to search for and save the hero Galatea. Once doing so they returned to their homes but found their hearts empty. Anglo and Pyravates were both confused as to why they felt such a loss inside of them until they once again found each other at the annual queen goddess's peach festival. Once together again their hearts were no longer empty and they spent as many days with one another as possible. Until one day Pyravates went missing, kidnapped really. See the god of pain, Olphaetus, he'd kidnapped the heroine Galatea to be his bride and was bitter that Anglo and Pyravates were now happy together after taking his happiness away. So he took Pyravates and Anglo spent the rest of his life searching for his love until one day he grew so exhausted and sad that his essence melted away to stars. After learning this Pyravates also melted away to stars." Virgil finished. "It's said that the two will have their essence be reborn in forms that will find each other again."

"Wow." Remus sighed. "Your stories are sad."

"Yeah they kind of are." Virgil laughed a little. "Most of them are just tales made to scare little kids into eating all their food or not staying out late, but some of them, like this one, spark huge changes in a culture. On my home planet every year there would be a huge festival held during the time that you can see Anglo's stars and most weddings were held during the time that you can see Pyravates'. Couples would imagine themselves as the gods' true reincarnations and get artwork and jewelry done in the traditional style like the gods. It really must have been beautiful."

"Must have been?" Janus asked.

"Well I-I never saw any of it." Virgil said sheepishly.

"Why not?"

"Renette!!" Patton's voice interrupted the conversation and all three sat up to see why he'd yelled.

Across the courtyard three black cars drove up to the grass and parked. Out stepped a large group of people. The three that ran to the Rangers included a very tall woman, and two very short kids, though one was blonde, and one had glasses. Virgil knew from Patton's descriptions that they must be Renette, Emile, and Remy respectively.

"Oh my dears!!" Renette yelled her arms outstretched as she received a hug from Roman and Logan.

Patton ran right to Emile, the two collapsing to their knees in tears hugging each other close. Remus and Janus got up, followed by Virgil and the three made their way over to the reunion.

"I was so scared." Emile sobbed.

"I told you not to be Emmy, look they got 'im back." Remy replied with a smile.

"I'm here Emile and I'm not going anywhere I promise." Patton rubbed Emile's back soothingly and the two finally pulled away.

"Dad!" Emile hopped up and ran over to Thomas, burying his head in his dad's chest. "You were gone for so long I-I-"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." Thomas hugged his son.

"Don't be sorry! I'm just so happy you're home!" Emile cried.

Virgil heard someone clear their throat in front of them and turned away from the father and son. Renette as well as two people they didn't know stood in front of Virgil, their faces a mix of being unable to know how to act and kind pity. Virgil didn't like 'kind pity'.

"I'm Renette." The first woman said. She was much taller than Patton had described, but he'd been very good at explaining just how intimidating she could be.

"Virgil." They responded, their voice rather squeaky.

"So I've heard." Renette offered a sad sort of smile. "Dear, I want you to know that you're safe."

Virgil was stunned. They'd expected hostility, anger, certainly not this.

"This is my wife Renae a licensed and practicing doctor, and my husband Roland a psychologist and therapist. I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure you're safe and happy here. It's going to be difficult, we don't exactly have many policies on handling aliens that used to try to kill us coming to Earth, but well, I'll do what I can." She almost laughed.

"Thank you." Virgil said, not sure what else they should say.

"Now, this introduction taken care of, I'm afraid I have some news for all of you." Renette moved to address the rest of the group.

Renae and Ronald moved beside Virgil offering them smiles and small greetings. The Rangers and other company gathered around Renette listening close. Virgil looked at each of them. Remus and Janus were holding hands once again, waiting impatiently to ditch the rest of the group and go off with just each other. Patton, Logan, and Roman were huddled together like they had been since getting to Earth, and finally Emile and Remy stood close to Thomas, the two smaller kids comforting each other while Thomas stood as a protector over them. If there was anyone for Virgil to be envious over it was the last group. The way they wished they had their own Thomas to protect them.

"I'm afraid your time with Patton and Virgil is limited for a while." Renette said, clearly expecting the sounds of protest she got. "I know and I'm sorry but Patton and Virgil are going to need to come with us."

"Why?" Roman asked.

"We just got Patton back please, Renette." Logan looked distraught.

"This isn't my decision but even if it was I would still make the same one." Renette said calmly. "Patton needs to be taken in for testing, and medical treatment and Virgil is going to need the same as well as interviews."

"But Patton's fine! No broken bones, no bleeding!" Remus argued. "There may be some ptsd but he has a therapist for that!"

"Remus that's-"

"She's right, you guys." Patton spoke up. "You-you can't take anti-depressants everyday for six years and then suddenly stop and expect to be healthy."

"The-the stuff they feed you up there," Virgil chimed in. "It isn't good for humans to consume everyday. Patton really should eat something nutritious if he can eat at all."

"If he can eat?" Thomas asked.

"Well, I'm only able to take in nutrients through a feeding tube now after eating that stuff for so many years. It's only been a couple weeks but I'm not really sure what the effects will be considering he's human."

"You eat out of a feeding tube?" Janus asked, Virgil recognized that sad and angry tone.

"I-I mean yeah." Virgil shrugged. They couldn't help but notice Patton look away, a little guilty. Like he had anything to be guilty for!

"Well, all that being said, I think you understand why Patton and Virgil need to come with us." Renette said calmly, looking back at Virgil with a smile.

"Right now?" Logan asked, Virgil wondered if he was begging.

"Well I suppose," Renette looked back at her spouses and received some looks before she looked down at her phone. "You've got half an hour."

The Rangers gasped and turned to Patton ready to get the full of their time with him. Virgil was surprised when Emile and Remy went over to them, practically bouncing.

"Patton said you saved him and-and the other Rangers." Emile said with a smile.

"I guess so, I mean not without their help." Virgil replied.

"I'm Emile." The kid held out his hand."

"I know." Virgil nodded. "Patton talked about you a lot."

"He did?" Emile asked, the smile on his face brightened.

"Whenever he got the chance." Virgil laughed a little. "He talked about you too, Remy right?"

"Of course he talked about me." Remy said, trying to seem cool but it really wasn't working. "I'm not exactly forgettable."

"Remy we're talking to an actual alien I think your ego can wait two minutes." Emile elbowed his friend a little. "Can I hug you?"

"Uhm," Virgil couldn't help but take a little step back.

The way Emile had said that, so full of hope and that twinge of bitter sadness at the question, it was so much like Patton and it broke Virgil's heart to hear. That first time that Virgil had stayed with Patton for a whole day. Talked with him, listened to him, even sang a song for him, that day had been a lovely one for Virgil, and at the end of it all Patton asked a simple and sweet question. When Virgil said yes Patton's arms gathered around Virgil delicately, like he didn't want to scare them off. But When Virgil's hand found their way around Patton's neck the boy burst into tears. Patton tried to pull away but Virgil wouldn't let him. He held Patton close so the Ranger could cry his eyes out. Once finally letting each other go Patton talked to Virgil about Logan, about Emile, about Thomas, about all his dearest and closest friends. How much he missed them. How badly he ached to see them. Virgil had listened to it all. He loved hearing Patton's stories, imaging it all, seeing that rush in Patton's face as he spoke about them. But they hated that deep shameful feeling of jealousy. It plagued him everytime Patton talked about his loved ones.

"Yes. Yes you can." Virgil nodded.

Emile and Remy both wrapped their arms around Virgil and the slightly taller one returned it. The hug was a nice feeling, a nicer feeling than Virgil had felt in a while, a nicer feeling than he thought they deserved.

"Oh darling what are these clothes?" Remy asked, pulling away a bit. "They feel so stiff, can you breathe?"

"Uh I-"

"Please tell me you didn't pick them yourself." Remy raised an eyebrow. "Emmy dear at least tell me they're matching colors."

"I'm afraid they're not your favorite combination Rem. White and gold." Emile said, face still on Virgil's shoulder.

"Oh gross." Remy made a face. "Virgey, babe, you and I and shortie over here-"

"I'm taller than you Remy."

"Are going shopping for a proper wardrobe." Remy put a hand on Virgil's cheek. "Yeah?"

"Uh sure." Virgil laughed.

Remy laughed too and went back in to hug Virgil, letting his hand fluff Virgil's hair.

"Oh my dear lord Dolly Parton." Remy pulled back again. "Em dearest you have got to feel this sweet alien's hair."

"Ha ha why?" Emile pulled away silently asking for Virgil's permission. Virgil gave the okay and let his head down a little for him to feel. They didn't quite know why these two were being this way, and why Patton had acted almost the same as Remy.

Virgil saw as Emile placed his hand carefully in Virgil's hair and the way his face lit up like a neutron star.

"Your hair is-it-it's," Emile stuttered out. "It's soft, but-but heavy and-oh gosh it's free stimming!!"

"Stimming?" Virgil asked.

"Aha, so stimming is-"

"Virge!" Remus shouted across the way. "Get over here why don't ya!"

"Sorry Remus but your buddy here is our's now!" Remy responded. "Their hair is like the best blanket ever."

Apparently this response meant the Ranger had to run over to the three and join in on the conversation.

"Oh it's just the softest curliest mess." Patton giggled.

"Do you mind if we?" Janus gestured to himself and Remus, asking permission to touch said hair.

"Sure I suppose." Virgil shrugged, they'd been doing that a lot lately. The two put their hands into the unruly black mess and smiled.

"Oh my god how did your hair get like this?" Remus asked.

"It's always been that way." Virgil said. They found they quite liked the way hands felt on their head.

After a little bit of praise over Virgil's hair they let up and started up a conversation of their own.

"Kids you've got about fifteen minutes left!" Renette called.

"Oh boy, only fifteen? What can we do in fifteen minutes?" Roman asked.

"I can do a lot in fifteen minutes." Remus smirked.

This sparked many different reactions, mostly just faces of disgust, but Patton rather angrily covered Emile's ears and gave Remus a look while Janus snickered.

"For real though what are we gonna do?" Remy asked.

Remus and Janus both exchanged looks with each other and then appeared to move on with some form of plan. Janu whipped out his phone and began scrolling through it, searching for something until finally a song began playing in the background. Virgil didn't recognize it, though he hadn't heard too much earth music. The beat was nice though, and the voice was clear and passionate. It wasn't Virgil's style, but they liked it. As the woman's voice sang Remus stepped forward and pulled Patton into a giggle-filled twirl before kissing him with a smile. Patton seemed surprised but smiled and pulled away laughing.

"Oh I've wanted to do that since I was a sophomore." Remus laughed. "You're a very good kisser."

"Oh thank you Remus." Patton laughed, letting himself get lifted up into the air a little.

"Move over Remus, it's not like you're the only one who's thought about kissing the boy!" Janus flicked his boyfriend.

Patton was set down and Janus passed his phone to Remus before he twirled Patton away and then brought him back in, giving him a second of two long kiss.

"Remus love, you're absolutely right." Janus said calmly.

Virgil watched with a smile if their own as Janus passed Patton along to Roman who danced with Patton for a bit to the song before dipping him down giving him a show-stopper kiss worthy of a stage. Virgil knew from Patton's stories it was something similar to Roman's personality.

"Patton Valentine you truly live up to the name." Roman said happily, pulling Patton back up.

"And you Roman are going to make your partner a very happy man." Patton patted Roman's head.

"You charm me." Roman twirled Patton in a similar way as Janus did, right next to Logan.

Virgil wanted to burst out laughing. Oh the time that Patton had spent talking about Logan, the things he'd said, the way he'd spoken so wistfully and excitedly. The way Logan sparked a sort of flame in Patton that got him chatting like a dork. Virgil was more than ready for those two to get together, but that moment was not theirs to witness.

"So Virgey dear-I'll come up with better nicknames later-how old are you exactly?" Remus asked, Janus and him now standing rather close to Virgil.

"I'm sixteen." Virgil told them.

"Wait what?" Remus stopped.

"Really?" Janus asked.

"Mhm." Virgil really didn't understand this reaction.

"I mean, sorry I know you're like short and baby-faced now but well, you were so tall before we thought you were in your twenties." Remus said.

"Well I'm sixteen." Virgil looked down a little confused.

"Hold on, so when I first started fighting you, you were twelve?" Thomas asked

"Yes." Virgil nodded.

"Oh god." Thomas looked away. "I fought a twelve year old. I got my ass handed to me by a twelve year old. I stabbed a twelve year old!"

"Thomas breathe." Janus patted his back.

"I need to go talk to Renette." Thomas sighed and stalked over to her.

"Dad!" Emile and Remy quickly following him.

"So!" Remus grabbed Virgil's attention back. "Now that we can date you without it being creepy-"

"What-"

"I gotta say you have one of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen." Remus put his hand on Virgil's cheek.

"Oh okay thank you-" Virgil's voice shook just a bit.

"I mean you're just stunning."Janus had a hand on Virgil's arm now.

"I-"

"What the hell are you two doing?"

Virgil's sweet sounding savior turned out to be Roman, the Red Ranger, one they felt a little too acquainted with if they were being honest.

"We're trying to have a throuple with Virgil." Remus said simply. "Yuh-duh."

"Why?" Roman asked.

"Yeah why?" Virgil squeaked.

"Why not?" Janus shrugged.

"You could be doing literally anything else right now." Roman said.

"Why would we though? Look at this face. Tell me this isn't the most beautiful face ever."

"You don't even know if they're into guys." Roman pointed out.

"Considering how much you two flirted, I think I'm safe in assuming." Remus rolled his eyes. "You are into guys though right?"

"I have literally no concept of attraction to people based on their sex or gender." Virgil said quickly.

"What?" Remus asked, thoroughly confused.

"Well, you guys have all these terms, gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, so on, I have no concept of that whatsoever. From how I was raised people love who they love, their gender or sex was never a determining factor in that." Virgil tried to explain.

"So you have no concept of sexual or romantic orientation?" Janus asked.

"Basically yeah." Virgil nodded.

"That's amazing." Roman sighed.

"Thank you?" Virgil felt that was another thing they'd been doing that a lot lately.

"So Virge you wanna be our third?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Uhhh-"

"Don't rush them Remus I know you're excited but they just got here." Janus smiled, leaning against his boyfriend. "Let them get to know us first before deciding."

"Yeah, yeah." Remus sighed.

"Have you ever even dated anyone?" Remy asked.

"Jeez when the hell did you get here?!" Virgil looked at him in shock. Apparently this kid was good at sneaking up on those who didn't like being snuck up on.

"I heard throuple and figured something interesting was happening." Remy shrugged. "Answer the question."

"No, I've never dated anyone." Virgil said, wary of the child in front of them.

"How? You're so handsome." Janus smiled. The way these two threw compliments around made Virgil hold their breath.

"Just look at that hair." Remus cooed.

"And your eyes." Janus sighed.

"Patton's the first person within two years of my age that I've ever talked to." Virgil explained after swallowing.

"Oh dear." Janus put a hand to his mouth.

"That's so sad." Remy shook his head.

"Is it?" Virgil asked.

"With a pretty face like that?" Remus put his hand under Virgil's chin and Janus ran his hand down their arm.

"It's a tragedy." Janus practically whispered.

"Okay! That's enough!" Roman split the two apart and pried Virgil from them. "You two need to seriously chill."

"Rude." Janus rolled his eyes.

"Cock-block." Remus sneered.

"Oh go screw each other in a field." Roman snapped back.

He led Virgil a little bit away, not touching them exactly, but staying just where the two were comfortable.

"Sorry about them. They're intense." Roman said kindly.

"No problem." Virgil laughed a little.

They remembered all the stories Patton had told them about Roman. His passion for theater, his love for Disney, his tendency to break into song at inappropriate times. One thing Patton had failed in describing was just how handsome Roman really was. Well, Patton had tried to give a physical description, but other than Logan, Patton wasn't too good at detailing his friends. Though, even if Patton had been able to, Virgil didn't he'd have been able to do Roman justice. A sharp, squared jaw, high but not too defined cheekbones, movie star green eyes and auburn hair that just perfectly complimented them. Virgil really liked the freckles that specked Roman's face like stars in the sky.

"Uhm, are you okay? You're really purple in the face." Roman gestured to his own face.

"What? Oh!" Virgil put their hands to their face. "Haha, yeah, purple blood, blushing is purple that sort of thing."

"Makes sense." Roman looked away, rather awkwardly.

"Roman uhm-"

"Time's up darlings! Pat, Virgil, get in the car!" Renette shouted.

Virgil scowled, they just kept getting interrupted today. Roman was courteous enough to Walk Virgil over and say a quick goodbye. Remus and Janus couldn't leave them without two hugs that lasted a little long, and Logan said a rather distracted farewell, and Emile and Remy offered their double hug that Virgil accepted with a smile. They were starting to get used to this whole hug and care thing.

When Virgil was finally strapped into the car, Patton on his right and Renette in front of the two, they felt sleepy. Really, really sleepy. So unbelievably exhausted they didn't know what to do. Patton must have noticed because he let Virgil sleep soundly in his lap. Virgil didn't ask Patton if anything had happened between him and Logan, but they figured they didn't have to. The love-struck smile on his face was enough for Virgil to fall asleep to. A sleep that was sorely needed. And sadly a sleep they wouldn't get to have for several nights after.


	25. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys visit Patton while he recovers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Trans!Logan, Logan centric story line, teasing, nurses, fluff, talking about future dates, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, talks of medication(specifically anti-depressants), hospital, vaguely described panic attack, talk of past mental illness, much of it is up to your interpretation however, talks of nightmares or ptsd, food mentions, mentions of torture, mentions of past kidnapping, please let me know if I missed anything

Logan had never known that Patton took anti-depressants. It didn't seem like any of Patton's friends knew. Other than Naomi apparently. That was one thing Patton had kept secret. Kept to himself for a long time. Logan wasn't mad, Patton had every right to keep things to himself. No, Logan didn't know what he was feeling. He was in no way mad or angry with Patton, he was more just sad. Sad that Patton felt like he had to keep things secret from Logan. Of course then Logan felt stupid, Patton can do what he wants with his life, he doesn't have to tell Logan things. Logan didn't even really know why Patton didn't tell anyone. So then knowing these things, why did Logan still feel some feeling? What even was the feeling that he had? Patton would know.

Roman parked his car and the four Rangers got out. Logan looked up at the brick hospital building that towered over them. It had never been so daunting. This was the Rangers' fifth visit to Patton this week alone, and it was undoubtedly going to be the worst one. They all knew it. They had to tell Patton what was happening. No more stalling. No more pretending. Logan figured today of all the days wasn't the best. Holidays were known to bring out the emotions in people, but well, Patton was never that big of a fan of Thanksgiving anyway so hopefully it wouldn't have that much of an impact.

As the group entered the hospital and made their way to Patton's room Logan tried to calm his nerves. The smell of the hospital was becoming a familiar one and Logan did not like that one bit. Roman knew Logan was nervous, they all were. He placed a careful arm around Logan's shoulders and offered a sweet smile. Logan tried to return it as best as he could, but he continued looking around. Passed the food court they went, the smell of off-putting turkey and cleaner surrounded them. Logan saw that they had oreos today as one of the deserts and hoped that would make Patton happy.

When the four reached the nurses' desk Roman asked the woman there for Nurse Iona and she gave him a nod. Sitting on the other side of the desk were a few people. A mother and likely her daughter, a man in his twenties, and a woman. She didn't seem old, but she certainly seemed worried, like her fears had been aging her past her years. This woman was someone Logan recognized, she was almost a fixture at this hospital.

"Roman?" Nurse Iona poked her head out the door behind the nurse's desk.

Roman waved at her and gave her a smile.

"Great, c'mon and follow me." She stepped out and gestured with her half-eaten sandwich.

She began leading them down a hall that Logan wasn't familiar with.

"We moved Patton to a different wing." She began explaining. "Don't worry we moved him to a lower security room, it's a good sign really. He's been doing a lot better these past few days."

This was supposed to be good news, but when Logan looked over at his friends he knew he wasn't the only one who was worried.

"Now, I'm gonna say you all can stay as late as you want, just as long as you're gone by lunchtime tomorrow." Iona told them. "Feel free to leave and come back later though."

She stopped in front of Patton's new door. The sign beside it said 1525A and had a place to swipe a card under that. Nurse Iona pulled out a plastic card and swiped it once. The light on the handle turning green and clicking to signify that the door was unlocked. She opened it and stepped inside, walking over to the bed.

Logan and Roman went inside first. Logan liked the new room better than the old one. The walls were a nicer color and there was a window to the outside. Logan looked over at Patton in the bed. Patton hadn't been looking so good since getting home but it seemed today was a lot better. His hair was still messy but Logan had never minded that. His eyes were just a little brighter, his cheeks had a little more life in them, and he smiled a little more hopefully. Logan felt his stomach drop, he desperately wished that they weren't going to ruin that.

"Hey guys!" Patton waved. "Like the new room?"

"It's great Pat." Roman smiled back at him and made his way over.

"Yeah you got a window this time." Remus snorted following his brother.

"I know, it's in the perfect spot too! I love watching the sunset." Patton said warmly.

Janus gave Patton a soft hug before sitting on Remus' lap in a chair.

"Oh a hug, haha that's nice." Patton giggled. He knew something was off.

"How's your Thanksgiving been Pat?" Roman asked.

"Oh, it's been alright. They have a lot of my favorite shows on so I've just been watching those." Patton told him.

"Have Susan or Megan come by?" Janus asked.

"No uhm, they're coming over for dinner tomorrow though. They might even get to take me out of here for an hour or so." Patton said excitedly. "Right Nona?"

"That's right son." Nurse Iona smiled. "So long as today and tomorrow go well you're allowed out with your family. And only your family." She ended sternly.

This only served to make Logan feel worse.

"How about you guys?" Patton asked. "What've you got going on?"

"Our mom's expecting us for a big family dinner around six." Roman told him.

"The whole extended Reeves clan is coming for Thanksgiving." Remus said with an annoyed look. "I've been preparing my conversation with Grandma Polly about gay rights for days."

"My moms are getting dinner ready now. They wanted me to come see you today though, so you weren't all alone on Thanksgiving. And they don't want me home for a while so they can fight about food in peace." Janus tried.

Logan didn't realize they were waiting for him until Patton said his name expectantly.

"Oh, uhm, my mom couldn't be home so we're not really celebrating Thanksgiving this year." Logan said. "But she'll be in town in a couple weeks so we'll probably do something then."

"Alright Patton, everything looks great. I'm gonna be down the hall, if you need anything you know what to do." Nurse Iona walked toward the door. "Jake is gonna be right outside this door, again you know what to do to get his attention. I'll be in to check on you at five, dinner's at six-thirty, and I'll be in around 11 for another check up before I head home and Anna takes over for the night. I told your friends they can stay the night, just gotta be out before lunch tomorrow."

"Okay!" Patton nodded. "Thank you!"

The Nurse motioned to a man Logan hadn't seen until that moment and the two left the room, closing the door behind them. It was quiet for a little too long.

"So what's Megan and Susan doing?" Roman asked.

"Don't." Patton said sternly. "What's wrong."

"What?"

"What's wrong, what's happened?" Patton crossed his arms. Awaiting an answer that none of them wanted to give.

"Pat uhm, this isn't easy to tell you.." Janus said.

"Well then get it out now. Rip it off like a band-aid." Patton tried. "How many times have I told you all to stop being so sensitive about my situation. I'm not dying, I'm in a hospital sure, but I'm fine. Just tell me."

"Pat." Logan stepped forward and reached out hesitantly, placing a hand on Patton's forearm. "It's a little difficult to tell you what's wrong because we don't really know what's wrong."

"What do you mean?" Patton asked, his face was so worried now. Logan really wished he didn't have to do this.

"After Renette dropped you off here and made sure you were all good she took Virgil back to some facility where Roland and Renae would examine them and then determine what needed to happen next." Janus began. He was always stronger than the rest of them. Or at least better at hiding his worries. "She would call Thomas and let him know if Virgil was going into intensive care or was well enough to conduct interviews and then come to this hospital to be treated."

"I know that." Patton said.

"Well," Remus cut in. "Thomas never got a call."

"What?" Patton's voice broke.

"Renette never called Thomas." Roman said. "We haven't heard from her in all the time that you've been here."

"You-you haven't-" Patton stopped himself.

"And then a few days ago we stopped hearing from Thomas." Janus said quickly. He really had taken Patton's band-aid advice. "Emile stopped coming to school and we decided to go over to their house."

"Patton it looked like no one had been there for a few days." Roman said quickly. "Honestly it looked like they'd left the place in a hurry. There was stuff everywhere and clothes and bags that had been packed up but were left. I mean it was-"

"Weird." Remus said quietly. "But it has something to do with Renette's radio silence we're just not sure what."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Patton asked. "I mean you knew about Renette not talking for the week and a half that I've been here but you didn't think to tell me?!"

"Patton-" Logan squeezed his arm.

"And it's been days since Thomas and Emile went missing and you're just telling me now?!" Patton pulled his arm away. "Why didn't you say anything before now! Virgil could be in danger! They could be in danger! God you guys why am I only hearing about this now?!"

"Patton please." Logan said, trying his best to keep things calm. "You have to see this from our perspective."

Patton huffed and waited for Logan to continue.

"We didn't know you were taking anti-depressants, we knew nothing of what you'd been through these past few years and when we did find out it was fast and you were in the hospital and we were unable to see you because of your condition." Logan said quietly. "We were scared about what this information would do to your mental health."

"That's no good reason to keep this from me. This is important. This absolutely concerns me and it's something I needed to know." Patton told him firmly.

"I-I know. And we should have told you sooner." Logan said. "You're right. But Thomas didn't want you knowing. He knows you better than us, he-he said it would just be better if we didn't say anything until you were out of the hospital."

"Why would he-" Patton stopped again. He looked away, towards the window. "Oh Thomas."

"We just wanted to be sure you were okay enough to hear it." Logan said shakily.

"Are you?" Roman asked. "Okay enough?"

Patton didn't make eye contact. "Is this all you came here for?"

"What?" Roman looked a little taken aback.

"No Pat." Janus said quickly.

"Of course not." Remus told him.

Patton took in a shaky breath. "Can I be alone for a bit?"

"Yeah." Logan nodded.

He stood, motioning for the rest of the Rangers to follow him out. Roman opened the door and left with his head down, Remus and Janus following quickly behind. Before he walked out the door Logan looked back to Patton. He was still looking out the window, his hands were shaking now. He sniffled and pulled his head away looking down at the morpher on his wrist. Logan took a shallow breath and left the room.

Once out in the hall Logan looked around at his friends. Their faces stern, too controlled, Logan couldn't handle it. He walked down the hall without a word. As fast as he could go, Logan walked with shaky legs past the nurse's desk to the cafeteria. He couldn't help but pace up and down, right hand up to his face, left hand stroking up and down on his forearm. Logan's thoughts ran a mile a minute, regretting everything for the past week that's happened.

"Hey." Roman's voice startled Logan from his sort of trance.

Logan didn't say anything, just looked over at his friend, pulling his hands away.

"Look Patton just needs some time." Roman said.

"I know that. I'm not mad at him. He has every right to be upset I just-" Logan took a breath. "We should have told him. We should have said something the second we got the chance."

"No we shouldn't have." Roman said. "Thomas made the right choice and if he were here he would have handled this way better than us but he isn't. So we're doing the best we can."

"Roman, we had no right keeping this from Patton. After everything him and Virgil went through! We know how badly Patton wants to see Virgil again. How close they are. We should have said something. I don't care what Thomas said!"

"Well you should." Roman said. "You said so yourself, Thomas knows him better than us. Knows about him better than us. We have to trust Thomas. If we can't trust him we can't trust anyone. Thomas'll know what to do when he gets back from whatever's going on."

Logan didn't know when Roman got so smart but he was somewhat enjoying this change. Somewhat being the key word.

"Hey, Remus texted, he uh wants to know if you're alright."

"You don't have to lie," Logan scoffed. "And I'm fine. Now. I just feel-I feel-ugh."

"I know." Roman sighed. "But it'll get better."

"When? I'm sick of feeling like this. I'm sick of not being able to explain how I feel and-"

Roman's phone buzzed. He didn't look like he wanted to see it but he did anyway. "Remus said we need to come back to Patton's room."

Logan nodded and followed Roman up and to Patton's hallway. Remus and Janus stood outside the door holding each other nervously. The door was open and Jake the security guard was gone and as Roman and Logan walked hurriedly towards them a nurse pushed them aside and ran into Patton's room. Logan broke into a run and was almost inside Patton's room when Remus and Janus pulled him back.

"What's going on?!" Logan asked worriedly.

"We don't know." Janus admitted.

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

"I mean what I said dammit!" Janus told him. "We don't know what's going on Logan!"

"Nurse Iona just opened the door and ran inside. She told us not to go in and that Jake had to be in there and then she shouted and-" Remus was more telling Roman this than Logan but it didn't matter.

"God." Roman put his hands on his head. "God we screwed up!"

"We shouldn't have said anything." Remus said fast. "We should have waited for Thomas. We should've-"

"Shh." Logan said curtly.

"Logan-"

"Please just shut up." Logan begged. "I just-" Logan put his hands over his ears.

Roman, Remus, and Janus respected what he needed. Quiet. Time to think. Time to calm down.

"Alright Pat that's it. You're doing good. So good." Nurse Iona could be heard saying.

"Yeah?" Patton asked weakly.

"Yeah Honey." She cooed. "I'm so proud of you."

"You are?"

"Very much." She replied.

Logan let his hands fall and let himself drop to the floor. He put his head in his palms and crossed his legs.

"Now, can you hand that to Jake please?" She asked calmly. "Thank you dear. Oh that was so good. How're you doing? Better?"

"Better?" Patton asked softly.

"Yeah are you feeling any better? You don't need to be perfect. No one expects you to be perfect." She said "I just want you to be better. For you. Not for me, not for Thomas, not for anyone but you."

"Mhm." Patton responded.

"Here can you drink some water?" She asked. Logan hoped Patton had taken it. "Sammy how we doin'?"

"All good here." The other nurse responded.

"Wonderful." Iona said with a happy tone.

"Did you know?" Patton asked suddenly.

"Know what Honey?"

"About Renette. And Thomas and Emile?"

"No Baby I didn't." She told him sadly. "I-I hadn't heard from Thomas so I thought something was a little off but I figured your friends had already told you. You never asked me about him so I just assumed."

"Oh." Patton sighed. "Nona, what else are they hiding from me?"

"What do ya mean Hun?"

"They didn't tell me about Thomas. Or Renette. What else haven't they told me? What if they know what's happened and they just won't tell me! And-and-and oh god they don't want to tell me 'cause they're scared and I-I just proved them right I-I shouldn't have been mad! They were right and I'm so dumb. I'm so dumb and stupid and weak and I-"

"Pat, Pat, Pat please breathe Hun. Deep breaths in and out follow me okay? Please?" It was quiet for a while. Logan assumed Patton was following the nurse's order. "Very good. Sammy turn up the-"

"Already done." Nurse Sammy said kindly.

"Thank you." Iona responded. "Take another sip baby. Here. There we go. Jake I think we're okay here, how about you take that and go get some more ice water."

"Got it." The security guard responded.

"And tell those boys to go home. I don't want them here any longer." Nurse Iona told him.

"No!" Patton protested. "No, don't make them go. Please let them stay. I still want to see them just-just not like this. Not while I'm like this, they can't see me like this."

"Are you sure?" Sammy asked. "Patton, it's not your responsibility. You don't owe them anything."

"I'm not saying I do, I just-" Patton stopped talking.

"You don't have to be strong for them Honey." Iona said. "They can handle themselves."

"I know that Nona I just-" Patton took a loud, deep breath. "Can I get some water?"

"Course."

Jake came out of the room in a second and was gone for a little bit before returning. Not without giving the boys a nasty look though. Logan would have felt upset but it only really made him smile. Of course Patton had made it his mission to befriend the forty something man to the point where he disliked anyone who made Patton upset. Of course.

"Here ya are Baby." Iona chuckled.

"I feel better." Patton said. "Not perfect but better."

"That's all I need." The nurse told him. "How's he lookin Sammy?"

"Better." She said. Logan could almost hear her smile. "Not perfect. But better."

"It's almost six." Patton said.

"Yeah Honey it-it is."

"I need to say goodbye to them." Patton said. "Roman and Remus they-they have to be home by six and I can't let me telling them to get out to be the last thing I say to them I-"

"I don't think that's a good idea Pat." Iona's voice darkened.

"Please Nona I just want to say goodbye."

"Alright." She didn't sound like she liked that idea at all. "Fine. I'm staying in here the whole time. And so is Sammy and Jake. None of them come within six feet of you. Got it."

"Yes Nona."

The next thing Logan saw was Jake in the doorway. His arms crossed and a rather angry look was on his face, but he motioned for them to follow him inside Patton's room. Roman helped Logan up and the four went inside tentatively.

"Hey." Patton said weakly.

Logan looked over at Patton. Something had changed. Logan knew it wasn't the puffy eyes, the tear streaks, the heavy breathing. No, it was something else. Patton looked weak. Physically and emotionally drained. Done for. Logan would be lying if he said it wasn't painful to see.

"Pat we're so sorry." Roman said, tears threatening to spill.

"Don't be. You couldn't know. You were just listening to Thomas." Patton said.

"We shouldn't have."

"Don't." Patton said. Only this time with a strained smile. "Besides you don't have much time. I just want you to know that I'm okay. And that I love you guys. I don't want you two to get in trouble with your mom, so-so you should head home. But I just want to say goodbye. So, ya know, you know I'm not mad. Or anything."

"We love you too Pat." Remus told him. He went to take a step toward him but stopped remembering he had to keep distance.

"Visit me soon please? With some good news?" Patton asked.

"You got it Pat." Janus said. The other three were doing what they could to not cry. To smile.

Logan didn't try. He let himself cry. He just needed to cry for a bit.

"We're gonna go now Pat. We'll come back soon okay. With some good news. Some really good news I promise." Roman tried.

"Okay." Patton nodded.

Nurse Iona handed Patton the water and had him drink some of it.

"Logan c'mon." Janus pulled on Logan's shirt a little. "Let's go."

"No." Logan said. "No I'm not going."

"Logan-" Roman tried.

"Lo you should go home to-"

"Don't." Logan borrowed a small phrase from Patton. "My sisters are over at their friends' and I was gonna spend tonight alone anyway. I'm not leaving unless I have to."

It was quiet.

"Does he have to go?" Patton asked Iona, almost desperate.

"I-" She sighed. "No. He-he can stay. Just, keep your distance for a bit."

Logan nodded. Roman, Remus, and Janus gave each other a look and then said their hasty good byes. Logan watched them go and turned toward Pat again once they were out of sight.

"You can sit down over there." Sammy pointed him to a chair in the corner. "Unless you want him outside?"

"No, no, he's fine here." Iona waved her concern away. "Now Baby how're you feeling?"

"I'm better Nona." Patton smiled at her. "Water?"

"Mhm." Jake handed him the cup.

Patton took a few sips before handing it back to Jake. He shivered but it wasn't cold in the room, and certainly not with that blanket.

"Sammy?" Nurse Iona leaned away from Patton and toward her coworker.

"Still good." She said. "Lowering his intake now."

"Alright." Iona nodded. "Pat you're gonna feel a little less . . . cloudy in a bit okay? If it becomes too much you let me know right away."

"Okay." Patton nodded.

Logan was quiet. He watched as Nurse Sammy fiddled with the IV attached to Patton's arm and Logan watched as Patton took deep measured breaths in and out. Patton brought his hands up to his face and rubbed at his cheeks.

"Patton?" Iona asked, putting her hand on Patton's shoulder.

"I'm okay. It's just, I'm feeling it a lot faster than I thought I would." Patton tried to laugh.

"Do you want us to dial it back up?" She asked him.

"No." Patton said. "No, no, it's okay it's just, kind of a lot."

"Alright. Now that's okay Hun."

It went back to quiet as Patton reacted to whatever they were doing. Logan didn't think he wanted to really know. He just watched on, helpless but there. Ready for Patton whenever he would need him.

After some time Patton seemed to have gathered himself well. Sammy left after a little longer and Jake took his post outside once again. Every now and then a nurse would enter and do something before leaving. When Nurse Iona let go of Patton's hand she walked over to Logan. Crouching down in front of him and offering him a curt smile.

"Logan?" She asked.

"Mhmm?" Logan sat up and looked at her.

"You're a strong boy. I-I've gotta go. Get to some other patients. Sammy should be back soon to get him the dinner menu and stuff." She sighed and looked over her shoulder at Patton before turning back. "Go over there and sit by your friend yeah? Talk to him."

Logan nodded. Iona stood up and left the two alone. Patton looked over at Logan and the two seemed stuck where they were for a bit before Logan got up and hurried over to Patton. Just before he could touch him Logan stopped himself. Patton might not want a hug. Patton needs space. Time.

"Oh please don't do that." Patton begged. "You're not gonna break me Lo."

Logan wrapped his arms around Patton softly, but firmly. Patton seemed perfectly okay with that. Even grateful for it.

"I'm so sorry Pat." Logan couldn't help but cry.

"Didn't I already tell you not to be." Patton teased.

"Yes. You did." Logan pulled back with a sniff. "And I won't be, as long as you promise me you won't feel guilty anymore."

This got a small laugh out of Patton. One that Logan was all too happy to hear.

"I thought I was the feelings master." Patton said.

"You are." Logan sat down. "Only I get to be when you're out of commission."

Patton gave him a smile. A real one this time. Logan was quick to return it. He pulled the chair closer to Patton's bed and reached out. Patton gladly taking Logan's hand.

"Pat, I promise that there is nothing else we're not telling you. Absolutely nothing." Logan said.

"Let's not talk about that." Patton said quickly. "Not now. Let's talk about anything else."

"Okay." Logan replied. "Uhh, why aren't Susan and Megan here. I know Susan she'd never let you be here all alone."

"Ha, yeah. Well, I don't like Thanksgiving ya know." Patton said. "Susan may make wonderful mashed potatoes, but no food can make up for the atrocities that Native Americans were put through. Besides, I told them not to come today."

"Why?"

"Well, a few months ago Megan's mom reached out." Patton said. "Like her biological mom. She-she uh she's been doing better. She said she wants some visitation and the court granted it. Just a few hours every now and then, and Susan has to be there. But uhm, she really wanted Megan over for Thanksgiving. So I told Megan and Susan to just go on over and give her a shot. Ya know. This woman she-she just wants her daughter back."

Logan nodded. The room was quiet again. Logan thought maybe even a little awkward.

"You know," Logan decided he'd figuratively break the ice. "Now that Virgil is with us. Our bet could really go my way."

"Whaddya mean what-" Patton's eyes widened. "Oh no. Oh gosh I completely forgot-"

Logan laughed. He couldn't help it. Patton's reaction was just too funny. And Patton's own laughter only spurred him on to laugh more.

"You know, you could just save yourself the wait and tell me now." Logan suggested.

"Uh-uh. I made that bet and I'm sticking to it. As much as I think those two might love each other, I never want to tell you what happened that day." Patton giggled.

"Please?" Logan blinked rapidly, hoping for Patton to crack a smile.

"Nope. Sorry but those cute eyes will get nothin' outta me." Patton winked.

"Damn." Logan sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"Language." Patton rolled his eyes. "So uhm, what's going on? In the outside world I mean. Stranger Things season four out yet? They cure cancer while I was gone?"

"Uh, no and no I'm afraid." Logan said with a chuckle.

"Oh." Patton looked away. Logan watched as his face saddened.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Logan asked. "It's clearly not something good."

Patton waited. Took a breath. Swallowed. And looked at Logan with a furrowed brow.

"Four years?" He asked, his voice high.

"Pat." Logan sighed.

"You didn't tell me for four years." Patton said. "I-I didn't know, or notice, for four years."

"That was kind of the point." Logan told him. "Patton what do you want me to say? I mean, to be honest, I wasn't exactly good at hiding my feelings for you, but well, I was insecure. I still am. I mean what would you have said if I told you sooner?"

"Well," Patton started shakily. "If you had told me when we were freshman, I probably would've said that I was flattered, surprised definitely, but that I didn't feel the same. And that I was sorry. And I would've left it at that. Then, if you'd told me when we were sophomores, uh, I would've probably asked you when you wanted to go out on a date. I was kind of slutty in tenth grade. But, well, I would have to admit that I didn't feel the same way about you sooner or later. I'd probably end up getting both of us hurt in the meantime. And then, if you came up to me in eleventh grade and said 'I have a crush on you' I would've told you that I don't like you in that way and then I would've done everything I could to help you."

"Help me?"

"I'm a youtuber Lo. People I don't even know confess their love to me every other month. At some point you start to figure out what to say to them so they realize they don't like you in that way. They just see you as someone they should be with. Someone they should want. But don't actually want."

"Patton-"

"I know how that sounds. And I know in the context of this person in question being you, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but well, it's what I would've done." Patton sighed. "But say you told three months ago. Two months ago, one month, while I was on that ship. Or-or say you told me a week and a half ago. But-but I didn't have enough time to say what I wanted to. Or, say right now, you told me that you had a big, fat, stupid, gay crush on me."

Patton and Logan laughed.

"Say that was true. I would tell you that our first date was already planned. Courtesy of me and getting kidnapped and having plenty of time to think about this. And also me not having the best of sleep schedules even when I'm not on a terrifying alien ship." Patton admitted. "See, our first date would be a few days after I get out of here. Casual dress, I'm not gonna make you be all fancy for date number one. We go some place in town. Around six, get something light to eat and a couple sodas. Then once we're done we get in my car, I'm driving, duh, I'm not getting your deathtrap. Then we get some ice cream. We pick out flavors that we think the other will like. And then we go to that field where all the teenagers go to make out. I mean we won't make out! . . . Maybe. Who knows? Maybe the moon'll be full that night. Anyway, we spend our time talking. We know each other, but I wanna hear you talk about things that you love. I want you to tell me a secret and then I'll tell you one of mine and then you talk to me about Sherlock and college and your dreams and everything you want to be and do. And I get to listen. I get to see your beautiful face light up like it's christmas while you tell me all the things you love."

Logan was stunned. Each word Patton said pulled him closer to the other boy. Each sweet, soft word carried Logan heart for miles as he took in all of this information, all of this confession. Logan drank it up eagerly, not taking his eyes off of Patton once.

"Then uh, you plan date two. Fancy, not fancy, whatever. You get that one. Then, date three mine again. I think I'll take you out to that super fancy place an hour away. You know what I'm talking about. Actually silver silverware, dinners that cost over thirty bucks but are half the size. We get fancy drinks and get all fancy dressed and have a fancy time until it gets late. Then I'll be a proper gentleman and drive you home, take you to your doorstep. That whole thing. Like the movies." Patton got a wistful look in his eyes. "Fourth date is back to you. Duh. Then the fifth date. It'll be some time when Megan and Susan aren't home. You come over to my place and I make homemade popcorn and we eat chocolates and watch movies. Romantic, scary, funny, whatever kind we want. Just movies that we can talk about and enjoy together. That's all."

Logan let out a quick breath. He felt like he was floating. He had no idea what to say. What do you do when the words that you've been waiting four years to hear finally get said? What do you do when something you'd dreamt about so many times you were left with the hopeless feeling that it would simply be that, a dream, actually happens?

"I could keep going. But I feel like by the time I get to the end of my list you'll be creeped out and not actually want to do any of those things with me." Patton laughed. "So, whaddya say?"

"About what?" Logan asked.

"Do you still want to?" Patton asked. "Be honest with me."

"Pat," Logan squeezed his hand. "Of course I do."

Patton giggled and squeezed his hand back. "Good because if you didn't that whole confession thing right there would have been real awkward."

"Yeah it really would've." Logan nodded.

"Okay well you don't have to rub it in." Patton said.

"Haha you like me." Logan said like he was a little middle schooler again. Making fun of his friends in a mean way. "You like me, Patton likes me!"

"Stop!" Patton laughed. "You're embarrassing me!"

"That's the point." Logan smiled cheekily. "Pat-ton li-kes meeee." He sang out.

"Okay enough! I'll take it all back!"

"Nope, no, you can't take it back. You're big fat stupid gay speech about how you like me is stuck in my mind forever. There is nothing you can do about it." Logan laughed.

"Oh I've created a monster." Patton sighed.

"Yes you have." Logan nodded.

The two laughed together, a nice real laugh. Logan appreciated it.

"So I tell you that I return your feelings and you make fun of me like we're in ninth grade?" Patton shook his head. "Since when have you been childish?"

"I'm just fulfilling the dreams of ninth grade me." Logan told him.

"Oh how lovely." Patton smiled. "Well I hope ninth grade you is very happy."

"Hmmm, I think he is." Logan told Patton.

There was a pregnant pause just before Patton yawned and blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

"Are you tired Patton?" Logan asked.

"I little I guess." Patton responded.

"Well, it's been an exhausting day I'm sure. Getting used to your new room, hearing terrible news, and then confessing your gay love for me, it-it's tiring." Logan smiled teasingly. "Do you want me to go so you can sleep?"

"No." Patton said firmly. "I don't want to sleep."

"Pat, you need your sleep." Logan said softly.

"I know but I don't want to sleep." Patton admitted.

There was a knock at the door and Sammy entered the room with a paper in hand and a small smile.

"Hey Pat, you up for some dinner?" She asked, though it really wasn't a question. "Here, you know whatever you want is covered so eat. Please."

"Okay." Patton took the menu that she offered and began looking it over.

"You two now kid." she looked over at Logan. "I'm not letting a highschooler go without dinner on my watch. Especially on Thanksgiving."

"I'm really not that hungry." Logan said.

"Ah no, when I get back both of you better tell me a main course, two sides, a drink, and a desert at least." She said firmly. "I'll accept nothing less."

With that she was gone, leaving the two to their choices.

"How did that Turkey smell while you made your way up here?" Patton asked.

"Umm-"

"Yeah that's enough for me, I'll just have my usual." Patton shrugged and handed the menu to Logan.

"Uh they have oreos today." Logan told him.

"Good, I need some." Patton smiled.

Logan knew Patton's eyes were on him as he looked over the menu, figuring he would just pick whatever Patton had. When Logan looked up and met Patton's eye the two stared at each other for a bit. Logan had always loved Patton's eyes. Patton had said before once that he wished he had eyes like Logan. Bright blue and sparkling with knowledge, as Patton described. But Logan didn't think that would fit Patton one bit. Patton was caring, collected, compassionate. And his eyes perfectly reflected that. They were a deep dark brown. They almost drew you in. Made you feel safe, warm. Logan didn't see any reason why Patton would want anything else.

"You two make your choices yet?" Sammy's voice asked from the doorway, she seemed a little too giddy to just be asking for their dinner orders.

"Uhm yeah." Patton tore his eyes away from Logan and said his order of mac and cheese and sides. Logan simply said he would eat the same and Sammy left with a nod.

"Why don't you want to fall asleep Pat?" Logan asked.

"Well," Patton looked away from him, sad. "I've been having nightmares."

"Nightmares?" Logan asked.

"Bad ones." Patton admitted. "I didn't want to say anything 'cause you all thought I was doing so well and I didn't want to ruin that. But yeah. I've been having awful nightmares. Almost every night. I just-I don't know it's scary to fall asleep though."

"Does Nurse Iona know?" Logan asked him.

"Yeah she does." Patton said. "She has me write down what I can remember in the morning so I can show them to my psychiatrist."

"Okay." Logan nodded. "Pat, what kind of nightmares?"

Patton was quiet for a moment before turning to Logan and taking in a deep breath.

"They usually start with me on the ship. In that room." Patton began steadily. "Virge and I are up there, together and everything is fine until-until the guards come in. And they zap me with those things and I'm helplessly paralyzed as they drag Virgil away, leaving me alone. The room is cold, and dark, and I can't do anything but listen to Virgil screaming while they-she hurts them. She injects them with those chemicals. She does whatever she does to them." Patton took a moment to gather himself. "Then the guards come back. I can only see their outline but it makes me so, so scared. They just keep zapping me over and over, hitting me, hurting me, I can't move or make a sound, I just take it. I let them hurt me in all these different ways while she screams at them to get my morpher. And then I'm alone again. Back in the dark. In the cold. Everything hurts so, so bad. And then Virgil opens the door. They're so weak looking, but they pretend like nothing happened . . . because to them nothing did. And I just let them get away with it. They get me water, food and then, then it's fine again. Until the guards come back. And this happens over and over."

Logan stared at Patton in horror. Patton had been dealing with this for so long and didn't say anything. He didn't want to. And now he was trusting Logan to hear it all.

"I can't stop it. It's the same dream over and over. Sometimes I don't dream at all but when I do it's always that nightmare. Sometimes she screams different things, or they hurt me in different ways, but it's mostly the same." Patton said. "I don't like falling asleep."

"Pat, it-it's okay." Logan said. "Thank you for telling me."

"If there's a time to be honest it's now." Patton simply. "Just, stay here at least until I fall asleep? I think I'll sleep better knowing you're here."

"Of course." Logan gave Patton a weak smile.

Sammy and another nurse entered not long after with their food and some trays for the two to eat on. Patton and Logan enjoyed their food together and talked about things that had happened while Patton had been away. Logan asked Patton what he wanted to do once getting out of the hospital and Patton told him very plainly that he just wanted to try and get back to normal. Whatever that would look like. The two wondered what life would be like with Virgil. With this new strange friend. Patton told Logan about some of the time that he'd spent up on the ship with Virgil. Teaching Virgil about earth things. Talking to Virgil about the Rangers. When the two finished Logan gathered their dishes and set them aside.

"Lo, look. I told you the sunset was beautiful." Patton motioned toward the window. Logan looked past Patton and out at the sun setting over the horizon. "Who knew our dumb Florida town could make such a pretty picture."

Logan wasn't looking out the window any more. Patton's face was all the beauty he needed then. He just looked so peaceful. So content. Logan thought maybe he should get a picture but figured this moment was so special he'd simply commit it to memory. It was hard to look away from Patton, it always had been for Logan, but when he did it was to look at their intertwined fingers as Patton gave his hand a comforting squeeze. Patton yawned yet again and Logan himself realized how tired he was. It wasn't that late, barely seven, but the sun set early in November. Logan knew he'd have to call Lauren soon or he wouldn't get home at all.

"Lo, can you lay with me a bit?" Patton asked him, almost whispering.

Yeah, Logan wasn't gonna get home.

"Sure Pat."

Logan sat down on the bed, taking off his shoes and setting them on the floor by the bed. Then felt free to wrap himself around Patton. His arm across Patton's shoulder, his face buried in Patton's hair. Patton's strawberry scent filled Logan's senses. How is that even possible? Logan asked himself. Once the sun was fully over the horizon and the room was only filling with the dim light of the night sky, Patton turned, curling himself into Logan and letting himself drift off to sleep. Logan followed suit rather quickly. Hoping he could keep that nightmare away, just for tonight.


	26. Rave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus and Remus hoped that a nice distraction would provide a lovely coming home party for Patton. Well to say the least their idea of a distraction can be a little hard core.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Patton centric storyline, I’VE NEVER BEEN TO RAVE I’M SO SORRY, partying, I really wanna draw the outfits that I described but if someone else does before me uhhhh I think i’d just about die, I spent a lot of time figuring out what they would wear, kissing, 
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, mentions of hard drugs, mentions of alcohol, partying, kissing, if there’s anything more I need you to tell me, I honestly can’t remember what happens in this chapter

Oh how Patton wished he would never have to get up. His mind was drifting in and out of sleep while he laid curled into Logan's chest. He could feel Logan's soft breaths against his hair and smell something sweet on Logan's person. Sadly however, the moment couldn't last. The sun had risen high enough to be just annoying enough that if either wanted to go back to sleep they'd have to get up and shut the blind. But everyone knows the moment you get up from the best sleep of your life, you can never get it back.

"Patton?" Logan asked quietly. "I know you're up don't deny it."

"Mmmm nooo." Patton groaned, burying himself further into Logan.

"I just said to not deny it." Patton could feel Logan's smile on his head. "We should get up."

"But I'm so comfy." Patton whined.

"I am too but Pat, I've got to get around and go home." Logan told him.

"You do?" Patton asked, fully knowing the answer.

"I'm afraid so." Logan said.

"Okay." Patton uncurled himself from Logan and sat up.

Logan followed suit and got off the hospital bed, beginning to tie his shoes.

"Oh gosh," Patton suddenly realized something. "Your sisters! You never got home last night, they must be so worried!"

"I'll make it up to them." Logan assured him. "Once I tell them I was with you here all will be forgiven anyway."

"Oh." Patton smiled to himself. "Okay."

It was quiet again, Patton watched Logan grab his phone and look at the screen, grimacing at the messages and notifications he must have missed. Logan shook his head and put his phone down. He stretched out, wincing slightly in pain.

"Logan!" Patton realized something yet again. "Your binder! You slept in it! Gosh it's been hours that's not healthy!"

"I'll spend today not wearing my binder then." Logan dismissed.

"Promise?" Patton didn't exactly ask.

"I promise." Logan smiled. "Less about me now. Before I go, how'd you sleep?"

Patton took a moment, gathering the right words to describe how it felt.

"Like the love of my life had his arms wrapped around me." Patton said, almost smug.

"Love of your life?" Logan stopped. "You just confessed that you liked me last night and now I'm the love of your life?"

"Well, you've liked me for four years, I figure I can make up for lost time." Patton shrugged.

"Pat you don't-"

"It's just a joke Lo." Patton assured him. "Hey, make sure for me that the others don't feel bad about yesterday. Please?"

"I will." Logan gave Patton a nod. Logan put his phone in his pocket and took Patton's hand. "I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with some news about Thomas and Emile."

"Has something happened?" Patton asked.

"I'm not sure, but the Power Rangers' group chat has a lot of notifications. I'll see what's going on and if it's anything you should know I'll have Nurse Iona tell you. Besides that I'll be here tomorrow to fill you in." Logan said kindly.

"Alright." Patton smiled. He trusted Logan, Logan doesn't lie. At least, he doesn't lie to Patton.

"I'll see you soon." Logan surprised Patton by leaning in and kissing him swiftly before heading to the door.

"You kissed me?" Patton wasn't entirely sure if he was asking why Logan did kiss him, or if the kiss had really happened.

"Making up for lost time right?" Logan responded.

And with that Logan was gone. Patton was alone again. This time though, it didn't feel too bad. He didn't really feel alone. As much as Patton tried he couldn't suppress the little squeal that bubbled from his chest. Those vines came back again. Breaching his chest and expanding over his body, flowers filling his brain making him go dizzy. Patton put his hands on his cheeks and felt his own warm blush before Patton fell back against the bed with a 'whoop' and a giddy giggle escaping his lips. Even after Patton's love-sick episode came to a close he couldn't stop smiling like a little kid. He wondered if Logan would always make him feel like that and came to the conclusion that yes, yes he would. All Patton could hope was that he made Logan feel the same way.

He knew it was silly to think like this. They hadn't even gone on a date! But Patton's mind couldn't help it. Not one bit.

. . .

Patton relished the feeling of his phone in his hand. He never thought he'd miss it the way he did then. He never thought he'd miss his diary keeping the way he did then. Patton sat in the passenger seat of Janus' car, typing away in his diary about the morning Logan had kissed him. Patton felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of him all day and he was doing everything he could to milk that feeling to the very last second.

It had been a few days since he was released from the hospital and in the time that he's been out Patton was able to hear a long lecture from Susan about him hiding being a Power Ranger from her, learn in detail every rumor spread about his disappearance that had circulated throughout the school from Megan, put out a YouTube video explaining some of the mental health issues he had been facing and tell everyone that the time he spent away was him in the hospital-a half-truth really, and even makeout with his new boyfriend in his car in a field after eating the most sugary ice cream of his life.

However, Patton knew that weightless feeling was a fleeting one, and in just a few moments he was going to be back to the regular worrying and fear that came with being a Power Ranger.

"I just don't get why I can't be in the front?" Remus whined once again.

"Because Patton's sitting in the front." Janus told him for the fifth time. "We're literally almost there, can you chill out?"

"Can I ride in the front on the way home?"

"Keep asking and the answer is a resounding no." Janus snapped.

Remus huffed and leaned back in his seat. Patton laughed a little at his friends and looked back at the twins in the back. Remus was looking out the window rather annoyed while he loudly chewed on gum, and Roman sat on the seat, a little nervously. Patton couldn't help but think his friend looked like a puppy scared that he was going to the vet and not the park. His head was down and his fingers were fidgeting in his lap.

"Ro what's going through your mind?" Patton asked.

"Nothing I just-" Roman sighed. "The winter musical is coming up and I'm really nervous about it."

"You?" Patton asked. "The Roman Reeves, nervous about a musical where he's the main character? C'mon you're the theater master! It's what you live for! You're gonna do amazing."

Patton was just a little relieved that this was a normal teenager problem and not a life-threatening-end-of-the-world problem.

"I know but, this is my senior show! The spring musical is mostly for the lower classmen and that's okay but, I just really want to look good for my college applications." Roman said. "My mom is going nuts of my college application right now and I get why but I just can't deal with it right now."

"Well your mom is a bitch so." Janus remarked.

"Janus." Patton scolded.

"Sorry Pat."

"While I agree with Janus' statement, I know that it's not entirely helpful." Patton shook his head.

"Whatever." Janus rolled his eyes.

"Ro, you're gonna be okay. I've seen you perform before and you're incredible! It makes sense why you're so nervous. Like you said it's your last real show. I think you need to find a way to push away all those thoughts about your mom and just focus on you. Focus on what you need to do to feel prepared, or even over prepared for the musical." Patton told his friend.

"Yeah." Roman nodded.

Janus turned down Logan's street and parked in front of Logan's house, waiting for the last of them to come outside and get in the car. Patton stared at Logan's front door excitedly waiting for his boyfriend to walk out and get in the car. When Logan finally did come out through his door Patton was surprised. He looked both on the verge of tears and screaming. Patton could hear through Remus' open door that there was a lot of shouting coming from inside Logan's home. Logan shut the door behind him and made his way to the car with a dark look on his face. No one said anything as Logan took the seat between Roman and Remus and the taller twin got in and closed the door. After everyone was buckled in Janus drove off and turned around at the end of Logan's cul-de-sac.

Patton looked back at Logan with a questioning glance. Logan gave him a forced smile in return and pulled out his phone, typing rather aggressively. Patton figured now wasn't the time to ask and went back to his own writing. He jumped a little when his phone buzzed and saw that Logan had texted him.

11:45 pm

Logan:

I'll tell you later.

Okay

Is everything alright?

Do you still want to go?

Logan:

Yes I do. I am alright.

Patton looked back at Logan, who did not return his glance, but he knew it was okay. Something was up, but Logan would tell him just like he said.

"My mom's texting me." Janus said just loud enough for Patton to hear. "Pat can you tell me what it says?"

"Yeah sure." Patton nodded, grabbing Janus' phone from the cup hold and looking at it. "Oh uhm, I need your password."

"Right." Janus sighed. "Uh, nevermind I'll just look at it later."

"What do you not trust me with your password?" Patton joked, placing the phone back.

"No, I just don't want to tell you it." Janus said.

"Here, gimmie, I'll put it in." Remus reached forward with grabby hands. Janus gave a nod of approval and Patton handed it over. "Jan you need to be more sex-positive."

"Remus, being sex positive and not wanting to say my phone password to Patton Valentine are not the same thing." Janus sighed.

"Whatever, it's not like he's gonna even know what it means." Remus shrugged, handing the phone back. "Your mom says hi and she wants to know if I'm staying over tonight."

"Tell her maybe and that I love her and say hi back." Janus said. "And Patton here is a YouTuber, he's not that innocent."

"Uh huh," Remus rolled his eyes. "Right. Hey Pat so you know what the peach emoji means?"

"Ahhhh." Roman covered his ears.

"No, no, no, no." Logan shook his head.

"Please don't." Roman asked.

Remus laughed maniacally as Janus parked the car on the grass and the five got out of the car.

"Hey Janus." Patton walked over to his friend. "On our way back can you stop at Thomas'. It'll be a week in a few days and I just want to check their place."

"Yeah sure Pat." Janus nodded, he shouldered Patton and offered a smile. "Just remind me and I'll be sure to."

Patton smiled and looked over at his friends. Janus and Remus had already locked arms and were walking ahead of the rest. Patton noticed for the first time that Remus was covered almost head-to-toe in beaded things. A small crown, a choker, he had a ton of elaborate bracelets lining his arms, a bead purse hung off his shoulder, he even wore a bead wrap around his thigh that was connected by more beads to his knee-high socks. Really Patton was impressed. He had no idea why Remus was wearing so much but he liked it nonetheless. Patton noted what his friends were all wearing. Remus in a black skirt and dark green green tank-top over a long-sleeve fishnet shirt. Janus had apparently let Remus dress him entirely because Patton had never seen him look this way before. And it was fairly reminiscent of the drawing Pat had snuck a glance at a few days before in Remus' notebook. Baggy, extremely ripped black jeans over striped black and see-through tights, a yellow tank-top tucked into them and over that a rather impressive black leather harness top that criss-crossed over Janus' chest. Topping the look off with Remus' classic patch covered jack. Roman had very clearly not opted to let Remus dress him and had gone for red flowery pants and a white crop-top under a simple black sweatshirt. Logan, like Roman, had very much dressed himself and worn a pair of tan skinny pants and a sweater vest over a white button up t-shirt. Patton couldn't help but think his boyfriend was dressed pretty dorky considering they were going to a Florida rave, but well, he loved it. The look was very Logan.

As Patton walked beside Roman and Logan he let his hand drift over and intertwined his pinky with Logan's. The boy in question let a smile slip onto his face as they continued on. In front of them Patton watched as Janus whispered something to Remus who laughed and reached above his head, taking off his bead-crown and placing it on Janus' head before grabbing his hand and running forward into the building in front of them. When Roman, Logan, and Patton stepped inside Patton was in awe. He'd never really been to a rave before, party? Yes. Rave? No. But inside the very building Virgil had once taken Janus now hundreds of teens from all around the area were crammed together dancing, talking, and partying.

The place was lit by lights strewn around the ceiling and walls as well as the lights over by the band playing their music. It seemed everyone was wearing some form of glow-stick jewelry or something glow-in-the-dark. Patton himself, along with Janus and Remus were all wearing glow-in-the-dark makeup courtesy of Remus' makeup skills and Patton's money. Patton loved it. 

He knew Roman, Janus, and Logan had been a little wary when Remus suggested that their big 'welcome home' party for Patton was a literal rave, but well, Patton knew Remus had chosen right. This was awesome.

When Patton looked back to the other two he found that Roman had already taken off somewhere and it was only Logan left who shared a similar but slightly more hesitant look of astonishment.

"You look like Spencer Reid." Patton told him.

"Who?"

"A character from Criminal Minds." Patton shrugged, looking around for a place to get glow-sticks.

"Ah." Logan nodded. Patton looked at his face once again and saw something else flash through Logan's eyes.

"You were trying to weren't you?!" Patton laughed.

"That's unimportant!" Logan replied. "The way you're dressed is far more interesting."

"Cool right?" Patton motioned to his outfit. "I've never been to a rave before so I let Remus pick out some stuff for me! I think it's awesome."

"Very cool." Logan told him. "What did Susan say exactly?"

"Oh! Well, uhm, she didn't see." Patton explained. "Yeah uh, I'm definitely not letting her see me go anywhere dressed like this. But Megan liked it!"

The outfit in particular was a dark blue dress with spaghetti straps and nylons all under a puffy bomber jacket that Patton had 'borrowed' from his sister. Logan laughed sweetly and looked around them, before deciding to lean in to Patton. Patton in return fully grabbed Logan's hand and started leading toward the big pile of glow sticks, excitedly grabbing some and looping them around Logan's neck or wrists as well as his own. Once both were fully decorated Patton dragged Logan onto the dance floor and pulled him close.

"I'm not the best of dancers!" Logan warned over the sound of the band. Patton wondered if bands usually played at raves, he didn't think so but well he wasn't an expert.

"Oh please like that matters!" Patton laughed.

The two began dancing like the people around them. Though Patton knew the two of them definitely looked like awkward newbies he couldn't seem to care. Logan, never known for his partying, seemed to be having the absolute time of his life while the two danced together. Patton twirled his boyfriend a few times before pulling him into a kiss that knocked both of them off balance a bit. Patton loved it when him and Logan kissed. He loved those flowers that exploded into his mind, he loved the way Logan wrapped himself around Patton, the overwhelming feeling of it all. He loved that he could feel this way practically whenever he wanted to.

"Hey!" Patton and Logan pulled away from each other annoyed and looked to see Naomi with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. "Can you two stop being horny so I can dance with my best friend?"

Patton laughed and let go of Logan with a hand and grabbed Naomi's spinning her around and dancing with the both of them. Patton was impressed to find Naomi dressed for the rave in an outfit that would no doubt make Remus proud. The three danced together joyfully for a while before Roman had found them and joined the group seamlessly. After a few more songs and even a cover of a My Chemical Romance song Patton figured he needed a break. Logan offered to go with him and the two let Naomi and Roman continue their semi-dance off with each other in peace.

Patton and Logan went together hand in hand through the crowd until reaching the back where mostly alcoholic drinks sat as well as a smattering of people doing drugs. Remus had told Patton to expect this and so Patton wasn't too shocked to see it. Patton and Logan found a couple cans of soda and opened them together standing off to the side and watching the crowd continue on.

Patton looked over to his left and found Remus and Janus standing surrounded by some other people, all wearing various forms of beaded attire. Patton watched almost mesmerised while Remus and a woman did a handshake and Remus pushed one of his crazy bracelets over their hands and onto her own wrist. Then they continued with their other arms and she slid one of her own impressive contraptions onto his arm.

"Do you know what they're doing?" Patton asked Logan, pointing over at their two friends.

"Oh." Logan looked over and then turned back to Patton. "Yeah so, a few years ago Remus found out about this thing called kandi. Basically people make things like bracelets and jewelry out of beads and gift them to each other at raves. It's pretty interesting actually. I'm not exactly sure of its purpose but Remus could tell you more about it I'm sure."

"Cool!" Patton nodded. He leaned back against the wall and let his head rest against it, the vibrations of the music and dancing now soothing him slightly.

"How are you doing?" Logan asked him.

"Amazing!" Patton said dreamily.

Logan didn't say anything else, just stared at Patton with the most adoring look Patton thought he could give. They finished their sodas quickly and as Patton and Logan threw their cans on the pile of other empty drinks the band flowed into their next cover song.

"It was a bad idea, calling you up," The lead singer sang with a smirk as she looked out among the crowd. Screams of delight made their way across the party as girls realized what song was playing. Patton couldn't but be a little surprised that so many of the people there knew Girl in Red.

"Was such a bad idea-uh," She sang again, her voice a little breathless but it only served to better the song. "Cause now I'm even more lost."

Patton couldn't help but sing along with her and the many other people in the crowd who knew the song. "It was a bad idea, to think you were the one. Was such a bad idea, cause now everything's wrong!"

Logan looked a little surprised at Patton's knowledge of the lyrics and that only served to make Patton smile as he dragged him into a dance once again.

"Darling you're so pretty it hurts!" Patton sang to Logan with a cheeky grin.

The two laughing over the next few lines and stopping just in time for the beat to drop.

"It was a bad idea! Calling you up! Was such a bad idea!" Patton more shouted than sang, but he certainly wasn't alone.

When the beat fell back Patton and Logan got into a groove of dancing with each other. Everything felt natural between them.

"It was a bad idea, meeting you so late. Was such a bad idea, cause I can't think straight." Patton couldn't help but give his boyfriend a wink and giggle with him while Logan grasped his hands and sang the next lines for Patton.

"It was a bad idea, to bring you back home. Was such a bad idea, I need to be alone!" Logan twirled Patton away from him and then quickly pulled him back in as if the two had practiced this dance a million times.

"Darling you're so pretty it hurts!" Logan traded lines with Patton.

The two continued their dance as the girl's voice rang out "Darling are you ready for mooooore!!"

Patton pulled Logan in by his belt loops just in time to kiss him as the beat dropped once again. The people around them jumping up and down with the song. Logan put his arms around Patton's neck and the two stayed perfectly together for a while until needing some deep breaths and pulling away. Patton's uncontrollable giggling coming back as he and Logan went on to dance.

"Hey you two!!!" Remus shouted as he ran and wrapped his arms around the boy's shoulders.

"Hey Remus!" Patton hugged Remus back.

"Greetings Remus." Logan smiled.

"God don't sound so fancy," Remus scoffed, letting the two go and putting his arm around Janus' waist. "This is a rave Logan! Not a dinner with my mom!"

"F off!" Logan responded.

"That's more like it!" Remus laughed.

"How's your first rave Pat?" Janus asked.

"Incredible!!" Patton replied. "Look at all these glow sticks!!"

"They're wonderful!" Janus smiled wide.

"Hey Remus, do you think later you could tell me about uh kandi?!" Patton asked excitedly.

"Oh I'd love too Patty!" Remus told him.

"Have you two been drinking?" Logan asked.

"No." Janus said.

"Yes!" Remus giggled. The next song was already ending and the music led a smooth transition to the next beat.

"Okay he has, I had a sip!" Janus defended. "I promise I'm nowhere near drunk! But I know that neither of you would dare drink so if Patton would rather drive that's fine with me I'll just crash with Remus."

"You guys haven't done any of those drugs either?" Patton asked.

"No!!" They both told him.

"Hey where's my brother?" Remus asked.

"With Naomi as far as we know!" Logan said.

"Good! She's a veteran around here!" Remus nodded getting into the groove of the music.

"Really?" Logan asked Patton who nodded.

"She does this stuff all the time!" Patton told him.

"Ooh!" Janus aggressively tapped Remus' shoulder. "Lilith and Monique are gonna be on their break soon!"

"Yay!!" Remus cheered.

"They said they've got a surprise for us before then though so guess we'll have to wait for-"

The guitar struck twice and then the male vocalist stepped forward and sang in his raspy voice "I wanna boy to keep the bed warm-"

"Oh my god it's our song!!!" Remus screeched.

"Monique you did not!!" Janus looked at his boyfriend.

"Come on!!" Remus grabbed his boyfriend and the two were in the crowd dancing to the song scream/singing the lyrics.

"Oh those two." Patton sighed.

"Shall we?" Logan put his hand out for Patton to take.

"Hmm, indeed we shall." Patton giggled.

The two followed their friends into the crowd and eventually found Roman and Naomi once again, the two's momentum hadn't dimmed even a little.

"Hey don't party too hard!" Naomi shouted over to Roman. "I still gotta see you at church tomorrow."

"Oh please!" Roman waved her off. "Like any church could help me! The second I set foot in this place I was damned!"

"If that ain't the truth!" Naomi laughed letting herself get spun around by the boy.

Songs came and went and Patton found himself getting dizzy with the dancing. After a while Patton noticed Logan's fatigue and vice versa.

"Hey, let's uh, go outside yeah?" Patton asked him.

"Alright I suppose we can." Logan shrugged.

"Hey, are you guys leaving?" Roman asked.

"We're just going to step outside." Patton explained.

"Oh, okay, I'll come too." Roman said.

"Naomi are you-"

"I won't do hard drugs!" She told Patton. "At least not while I know y'all are here."

"Naomi." Patton looked at her sternly.

"Hey, it's your first rave Patty, not mine!" She continued dancing. "I've got a ride home anyway!"

"With who?" Roman asked.

"That simp in our second hour!" She said. "I think his name is Craig. Or Draig, or something."

"Mi Mi!" Patton scoffed, but he smiled just a little. If there was anything in his life that hadn't changed, it was her.

"Lay off me Pat! It's not like he's spending money on me! Plus he's kind of a creep, I'm gonna tell him that I hate him later." She shrugged.

"How are we friends?!" Patton laughed.

"Let's see, in tenth grade you were a slut with a YouTube channel and I was a repressed bisexual with a choking kink that knew how to work a camera! We were basically made for each other!"

"You're terrible!"

"I love you too!"

Patton grabbed Logan's hand and walked away laughing. The three left the building and stood outside. Each of them trying to take calming breaths and just take in the crisp air outside.

"Lo?" Patton turned to him. "What was uh-what made you so upset earlier."

"Oh yeah that." Logan put his head down.

"Is your mom home?" Roman asked.

"Yeah uhm, she came home yesterday." Logan said.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Patton asked.

"Yeah we both know how stressful it is for you to be around her." Roman said concerned as well.

"She said she wasn't going to be in town for more than two days. I figured it would go by without incident but. . . " He trailed off.

"I'm guessing something happened." Roman nodded.

"Yeah ha uh, my grandfather died." Logan said.

"What?!" Patton jumped from his relaxed state.

"It's okay!" Logan shook his hands. "Really he was my dad's dad and I hadn't seen him in years. His family doesn't really contact us anymore."

"And you guys got in a fight?" Roman asked him.

"I-not me and her. My mom and Lauren got in a fight."

"Oh boy." Roman put his hand to his mouth. "No."

"Yeah. A bad one too." Logan kind of laughed. "I'm not even sure what it's all about. I just know that I was getting ready and trying to drown out the sound of their yelling with a podcast but when I got downstairs to leave Nora was crying about something and the two were just yelling and my mom was gonna throw something and I just kind of lost it. Then you guys showed up and I just left. I was so mad."

"I'm sorry Lo." Patton told him softly. "That's awful."

"It's fine." Logan shrugged. "I just, kinda wanted to get through this week without something super dramatic happening and I guess that's not gonna happen."

"Never a dull day in Florida." Roman scoffed.

"Guys we gotta go!!!" Remus shouted from far away as he and Janus ran toward the three.

"What?" Patton asked.

"Why?"

"Remus what did you do!?" Roman yelled angrily.

"Nothing!!" Remus defended, in front of the three and tried to get them to move.

"Really Remus didn't do anything! But the police are on their way so let's haul ass!!" Janus said hurriedly.

"Who called the police?" Logan asked startled.

"Some douchebag was drunk cheating on his girlfriend and the other girl found out and called the police!" Janus said. "Now get the damn car! Roman drive!!"

"Roman's been drinking." Patton informed Janus. They arrived at the car rather quickly given they were running.

"Dammit white boy!!" Janus sighed. "Remus isn't driving, Logan I don't want you anywhere near the wheel! Patton can you pass?"

"From behind probably, and well it's dark so yeah I think so."

"Great!" Janus tossed him the keys. "Let's get home!"

Patton caught them and got in the front seat, quickly getting the car started. Logan got in the passenger seat swiftly and the others followed suit. Like many of the other party goers they were out of there in a flash and making their way back into town.

"Hey Pat, we're getting kinda close to Thomas', you still wanna stop by?" Janus noted.

"Yeah, if that's alright with all of you?" Patton looked back quickly at the group.

The others were on board and Patton was grateful, though his friends weren't entirely able to protest. Roman was thoroughly exhausted, Janus and Remus were most likely high and drunk, and Logan looked like a love-sick puppy willing to follow Patton anywhere. Patton had to admit it was a little hard to focus on the road with Logan looking at him like that. Big doe eyes and dust of pink on his cheeks. Patton didn't know how he'd gone these past few years without Logan.

When Patton came to Thomas' street he had to stop the car fast. His body and the others' jolted forward.

"Pat what the . . . hell." Janus trailed off as he and the others looked in front of them.

There, lining Thomas' street were black SUVs, their flashing red and blue lights lit up the street and road blocks forbid the car from going any further.

"This isn't good." Roman said warily.

"No," Patton said low. "It's not."

He got out of the car quickly and snuck his way around the barricades.

"Patton!" Logan whisper-yelled. "Patton!"

Patton didn't turn around. Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong and Patton needed answers. He was sick of having to wait. Waiting wasn't for him, waiting was for the weak. Patton wasn't about to start waiting again. Thomas and Emile could be in danger. Virgil could be in danger.

"I have to know what's going on." Patton whispered as the others caught up to him.

"Well we're coming too." Janus said simply.

"We're not gonna leave you alone." Roman told him.

Patton smiled, yet another thing he had to be grateful for. The boys snuck as swiftly and quietly as they could in the shadows up to Thomas' house. As they neared Patton saw a place in the gardens where they could hide and led them all there. It had been Patton's go to hide-and-go-seek spot for years. He'd always won. The Rangers crouched in the bushes and watched as men exited the SUV's carrying items that Patton couldn't really make out.

"How was the ride over?" Patton heard Rennette ask.

He looked over and saw Renette and her husband and wife exiting a car while Thomas got out of another. The four met up in front of the house.

"Good. They're all asleep in the back." Thomas said.

"Well the three need it." Renae said, looking around them.

"Remy's gonna want to stay with you tonight." Roland told Thomas.

"He's welcome to. Emile would love it." Thomas sighed. "Would need it actually."

"How's Emile been doing lately?" Renae asked. "I didn't get much of a chance to ask him all on my own but, well, we know he hasn't been doing good since him and Sara, uhm, split."

"Honestly, Emile's been retreating a lot. Now, he's a teen so I don't know what else he would do, I was worse than him as a kid, but I know he's hiding everything from Patton and I think he hasn't been totally honest with Remy. I just don't want him to stop talking to the people that can help him." Thomas said sadly.

"He just needs time." Roland told his friend. "It was his first real relationship, and it ended, well, let's just say I wanna punch a fourteen year old."

The adults laughed a little.

"Thomas, before they wake up I'm afraid I need to talk to you alone."

"Oh always with your secrecy dearest?" Roland snickered at Renette.

"Leave them be Roland, they're doing the lord's work." Renae took her husband's hand and began pulling him away to leave Thomas and Renette in peace.

"By the lord you mean Dolly Parton don't you?"

"Oh who else."

Thomas and Renette watched the two go with fond smiles.

"I still don't forgive you for stealing him away from me." Thomas teased.

"Oh please, I didn't steal anything. I won fair and square." Renette pushed him playfully.

The two looked at each other happily before the mood turned.

"Thomas I have to tell you something." Renette said softly. Patton had to inch forward to hear better.

"Oh there's always something."

"Well, I could tell you the good news first." She suggested.

"Yes please." Thomas sighed. "I could use it."

"The trial isn't over, but it's expected to go our way. Virgil should be off as free as they can be soon." Renette said. "It seems like they might take our deal too. And as soon as they do we'll get everything else finished off."

"That's fantastic news!" Thomas said excitedly.

"It is." Renette smiled. "But, then there's the other thing."

"Yes there is."

"Thomas, the recording, it wasn't destroyed." Rentte said quickly.

"What?" Thomas looked at her startled. "But you said-"

"I know what I said, but I lied. I don't want Emile or remy to even know. I don't want there to be a chance that they could hear it." Renette said hotly. "But the thing is, you and the boys are going to have to listen to it."

"Renette!" Thomas almost yelled before lowering his voice again.

"Thomas, I know you don't want to, believe me I don't want you to, or the boys to have to. But the things that Virgil told them, they're things that you have to listen to." Renette told him, her voice filled with regret. "This isn't negotiable. I really wish it was but you and the boys have to listen to it."

Thomas crossed his arms, he looked almost scared.

"Thomas, I'll be honest with you, I-I tried to listen to the recording and I couldn't. It was, it-it was," She took a deep breath in. "It's something that my son can never hear."

Thomas put his hand to his mouth in sadness.

"I've sent it to a friend of mine however. To uhm edit it. Just cut all the things that don't pertain to what we need. Hopefully that'll cut out some of the worst of it, but I don't know for sure all that you're going to have to hear." Renette said. "And-and I can't ask Virgil all these questions, not while they're still recovering-"

"No that's okay I wouldn't ask you to." Thomas said. "I just don't see why we have to."

"We're in a bit of a time crunch Thomas." Renette said. "Some of the things Virgil was talking about. I need you and the boys to hear them asap and then use that to develop a plan to take her down. We don't have long."

"What do you mean by we don't have long?" Thomas asked.

"Virgil explains everything in the recording as best as they can, just, please do this. It'll be hard and-and you and the boys can figure out how it's best to do it but please." Renette begged.

"We'll figure it out Nettie." Thomas said. "Don't worry about this anymore. I can handle this one thing. You have a million other worries right now."

"Oh I'll always worry."

There was a beat of silence before Thomas seemed to remember something.

"Before I forget, do you have the thing?" Thomas asked.

"The drive? For Virgil?" Renette tried to clarify.

"Yeah that. I think it would be better if I keep it. So when they're ready, they can see it. Figure it out. It is for them after all."

"Hmm." Renette looked over at the cars. "Yeah I have it. I think I put it back in Virgil's bag actually."

"Okay." Thomas nodded.

"Ma!" Remy's voice came from the front SUV.

The two parents walked over to the car and stood by the door.

"Yes?"

"Ma, can I stay the night with Emile and Virge? I-I know it's short notice but-"

"Of course you can." Renette told him.

Remy's squeal of excitement was enough to make Patton smile just a little bit.

"Oh Virge we are gonna have so much fun tonight!" Remy said to the person next to him.

"Uhm, Virge, I don't want to overwhelm you, but I was thinking tomorrow we all just rest and try to relax and then Sunday we find some stuff to fill your room. You pick some stuff out from online, get some bedding or curtains or decorations you like." Thomas suggested softly. "Maybe even get you some clothes and stuff that you really like?"

"Oooh!!" Remy seemed excited at this. "Please let Emile and I help you pick out a wardrobe!"

"How about, you all figure this out inside yeah?" Renette offered, moving out of the way and helping her son out of the car.

Emile got out of the other side and hurried over to stand by Remy. Patton watched as Virgil, in their short, chubby glory got out of the car. Patton's hand went to his mouth, there they were, so close. Then that happy feeling fizzled away as Patton looked closer. Virgil looked so weary. Like they'd been unable to sleep for weeks. Their skin was sickly and they seemed skinnier than before. Weaker than before. Emile interlocked his arm with Virgil's and Virgil gently held Remy's elbow, the three heading inside as Emile and Remy chatted about all the clothes they could get their new friend. Virgil just listened idly. They seemed so far away.

"I'll have Emile go to school Wednesday to tell the boys they need to be at my place." Thomas said. "We need to discuss everything with them."

"Agreed. I'll be there. And we can work out a time as soon as possible to get you all listening to the recording." Renette told him. "What do you think they know?"

"I'm sure they know something's up, and that it has to do with Virgil." Thomas told her.

"They're certainly not dumb." Renette smiled. "Sometimes."

"On the rarest of occasions." Thomas laughed.

The two went into the house together and Patton turned around and slumped down. "What is going on?"


	27. Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A special Turkey day gift from me to you. Enjoy this Renette pov chapter about where Virgil's been and what's been going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Renette centric cause I wanted to and it’s Turkey day!, background on Renette, a few nice Virgil scenes, the Rademeyer family, I made Virgil autistic and genderfluid f you, family time!!!
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: this chapter is really intense you guys I’m serious. different forms of torture(skip the paragraph starting with ‘the first screen’ and pick back up after ‘her own hands’), minor character death, cancer, medications, self-degredations, food mentions, being unable to eat, blood, throwing-up, Panic Disorder, fatigue, mentions of stalking, homelessness, sex-work(repect sex workers dammit, if you don’t I genuinely want you to block me because I hate you), teen pregnancy,

Renette had only felt this unsafe once before. And that night she vowed to never let anyone feel the same way she did. She spent her early teen years on the streets and eventually had to turn to sex work to make a stable income. A friend she had made allowed her to rent out a small place while she helped herself through her addictions and poverty. She never let herself get too far into her own head. She couldn’t risk it. Not when she had already gotten so far. And especially not after she had her first kid. She was only nineteen when she had Zuri. Renette knew she couldn’t support this baby and herself but she’d damn herself if she didn’t try. Named after the sister Renette would never get to see grow up, Zuri became a light in Renette’s life. A little spark of hope that she couldn’t wait to see grow into a blazing bright flame. Renette had been able to land a few different jobs here and there but nothing was truly permanent, she had been able to enroll Zuri in the nearest school she could and was nothing if not the best mother she could ever be for her baby. 

Then Zuri was diagnosed with ocular cancer. Just as Renette’s mother, great grandmother, and so on. Renette knew it skipped generations but you couldn’t blame the woman for hoping to any god that her precious daughter wouldn’t have to go through what her mother had. The day Zuri passed was the day Renette made up her mind. She finished her GED in record time and enrolled in the nearest community college, working two jobs and eating two meals a day. When she applied for the FBI training academy she was denied. Only to come back the next chance she got. It took three tires before she was accepted. There she excelled and rose above what she ever thought she could be, but she couldn’t help the pain in her chest when she thought about her failed promise. Then she met Renae. Renae wasn’t known as Renae at the time, but here this girl was, a sweet, beautiful doctor who for some reason that Renette would never understand, was head-over-heels for the girl. 

Renette wanted to revel in the feeling of this new and exciting relationship, but deep down she felt bitter. The thirteen year old girl who was just thrown to the curb was screaming at her future self. You promised, no one would ever feel so helpless, so hopeless, so unsafe and unloved! Yet here you are, you let your sister live without ever knowing your fate, you let your friends be exploited, you let your daughter die! Now here you are making this promise to another person, knowing you can’t keep it!!!

When Renette was asked to work for the Power Rangers at the FBI she didn’t hesitate. If anyone out there could help guarantee people’s safety, it was the Power Rangers, and she wanted to know she was doing everything she could to help them. However if someone asked Renette now what she thought of the Power Rangers when she first met them, she would be honest and tell you they were ‘a shit show of privilege and queerness’. 

Joan was an unbelievable ass at every possible chance, unless Talyn was around, then they were a bumbling idiot who couldn’t spell ‘love’ if you gave them a dictionary. Valerie couldn’t shut up about whatever theater production she was starring in even if her life depended on it. Terrence was brand new and had no idea what was happening around him 90% of the time. Dominic was a weeb. Talyn seemed to be as infested with rats as they were infested with repressed emotions. And the Black Ranger hadn’t even been found yet! 

There was a lot more work to get done than Renette had anticipated, but she was nothing if not a problem solver. And with Renae’s undying support she felt she could get practically anything done. Save to say it felt like smooth sailing from there on. Renette and Ranae met a lovely man-him being the Black Rangers boyfriend was a coincidence that just so happened to work in the girls’ favors-had a lovely son, and lived rather lovely lives. 

The day that Joan, Talyn, Valerie, Dominic, and Terrence had been taken from them was one that Renette would never forget. She had to be strong, so strong. For Thomas, for her family, for her friends’ families, and for this poor little boy that was left behind in it all. A little boy she had never gotten to know. A little boy she promised herself she would never let feel helpless. She placed him in the best home as close to Thomas as she could, and began working on a small file in secret. One she swore she wouldn’t open until she was absolutely certain. Later that night she let herself cry for the first time. Alone. 

Now, here she was. All of her promises broken. 

Renette’s bloody knuckles were starting to dry and her sweat was pooling at the base of her chin. She sniffed and smelled copper, her split and swollen lip still pulsed with pain. She pushed her stray hairs back against her braids with her wrist and put her palm back against the wheel. Behind her Renae and Roland slept. Not soundly, but at least they were asleep. Renette didn’t want them seeing her like this. When she arrived at her destination she was ushered in quickly. Renae and Roland lifted up by herself and her brother-in-law. Renae’s family doted over the two while she called Thomas, ensuring that he, Remy, and Emile were safe. 

As she got on her phone and laptop and began contacting any of the few allies she had left her mind screamed at her. 

You broke your promise to your mother! You broke your promise to your sister! You broke your promise to your friends! You broke your promise to your daughter! You broke your promise to Renae! You broke your promise to Roland! You broke your promise to Patton! You broke your promise to Emile! You broke your promise to Thomas! You broke your promise to Remy! Now you’ve broken your promise to Virgil!!!

She raced around the small room Ranae’s mother had given her to work in, looking for answers. Waiting for calls back. Researching everything she could that could possibly be useful. Careful knocks at the door stirred Renette from her stupor and she opened the door to find Nia, Ranae’s mother, holding a first aid kit and some water. The gentle older woman helped treat Renette’s cuts and bruises and examined how her daughter in law had been treated. 

Renette didn’t sleep. She couldn’t, not even with the copious amounts of sleeping pills. Renae’s father and brother left to get Remy in the morning and brought him back to their house. The boy no doubt having a million questions. Hardly any of them Renette could answer honestly, but luckily she didn’t have to. Renae and Roland had awoken in that time and were able to keep their son busy with their doting so Renette could work. 

The woman didn’t eat unless she was forced to and had sheltered herself away from the family, much to their dislike. However, they knew Renette. They knew what she was like. They knew that this would pass. And until then she had to take care of herself. They could only intervene so much before she would retreat even farther. 

It had been days. Tons of missed calls from Thomas and the boys. Missed meals. Shed tears. And finally, finally, a call came. 

“Hello? Miss?” The young woman’s voice was frantic and quiet. “Is this Miss Rademeyer?”

“Who are you?” Renette responded curtly.

“I-I was told to call you.” She continued to whisper. Renette could hear traffic, possibly rain in the background. “I’m afraid to tell you my name if I’m being honest ma’am, but I’ve got some information that you’ve been looking for.”

“What would this pertain to exactly?” Renette asked.

“A certain se-senator.” Renette could practically hear the girl shivering cold. 

“I don’t have time for this.” Renette dismissed. 

“A certain senator that’s orchestrated the kidnapping of a sixteen year old boy!” She hurried to say. “Please, I’m afraid something horrible has happened and I was given this number to call. I don’t want to be fired or-or hurt or-or-”

“Okay, okay,” Renette opened a word document on her laptop and tried to calm the poor girl. “Please, I can assure you nothing will happen to you, just tell me your name please, so I can walk you through this.”

“Julie.” She whispered. 

“Okay Julie. My name is Mrs. Rademeyer, please tell me what you know.” 

The girl, an assistant to a rather important man explained that she was told to share certain files with this senator’s friend, concerning his future presidential campaign. However, the curious girl opened the files and found pages upon pages of plans to kidnap a familiar prince. The terrified girl was later approached by a friend of Renette’s who had been digging around this senator for a while, and told her that if she had any information on a missing boy she should call Renette’s number.

It didn’t take long after this call for Renette to gather her friends and some rather impressive weaponry. She called this senator, telling him she wanted to speak about his campaign, only to ambush and threaten him. Renette didn’t know what he had done with Virgil, but she was ready for this nightmare to be over, and damn she meant by any means. 

The deal they made was a simple one. She would get Virgil back, she would be able to take anyone affiliated to court, and she would retain her position in the FBI without disruption, as long as his name was utterly erased from this whole ordeal. While she didn’t like it, Renette knew it was the best deal she was going to get and took it. 

Renae and Roland had demanded they go with her, and Renette knew she was in no position to argue. The three Rademeyers and some of their closest confidants left for an abandoned warehouse. Not far out of town. It was an uncharacteristically cold night for Florida, even if it was November. Renette could see her breath puff in front of her as she entered the building, Roland and Renae close behind. The rest of the group split, covering the warehouse, searching for any sign of life. 

“Renette!!!” One of their friends shouted. 

Renette and her husband and wife raced to the voice. When they arrived other members of the group were also running into the room. 

“Oh god.” Alek, the one who had called for them said under his breath as he examined what was in the room. 

Renette saw a large desk, on it four computer screens had been booted up by Alek. There was a keyboard and a large stack of USB drives on the desk as well. A chair that had been well-used and a trash can also sat in the damp dark room. What scared Renette the most was a cut out hole in the wall just above the monitors. Sticking out of it was an obvious camera. 

“Oh dear god.” Renae gasped, pointing at one of the center screens. 

Renette could see the outline of someone huddled in another room, visibly shaking even on the blurred screen. 

“The next room over!” Another teammate determined. 

“Wait!” Roland stopped him from leaving. “Renette and Parker come with me, you two can help me get the door open and inspect the room while I check on Virgil. Everyone else stays here.”

The group listened to these directions and Renette followed her husband out of the room and to the next door they could find. As expected it was locked and they hadn't been provided with a key. Luckily Renette and Parker were strong. While anyone else would have gone for a more clever approach, the two simply bodied the door open. The angry screech of the metal on the cement hurt her ears, but it was nothing compared to the sheer fear that exploded out of Virgil in a loud scream. 

Renette did as she was told and went to the other side of the room to inspect it while Roland inched his way over to Virgil. 

“Virgil?” He asked softly. No response. 

Renette went to the opposite wall where she found a mound of rotting food sitting under a flap large enough to shove a tray through. The wall was indescribably dirty. In fact the whole room seemed to be like that. 

“Virgil my name is Roland. Is it possible that you remember me?” He crouched now, staying a distance away that Virgil seemed comfortable with. 

Renette could see scratch marks on the wall around and over the flap where the food must have been delivered. It looked like Virgil had attempted to eat some of it only to throw it back up. 

“Virgil we’re not here to hurt you. We’re going to get you out of here and somewhere safe. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you again.” Roland tried to soothe. 

“Renette.” Parker whispered. Renette looked over at him and saw he was standing beside a part of the wall that looked to have a camera lens sticking out of it. Renette made her way over and looked at it with disdain. “Nettie, look at this.” He pointed to crusty flakes around the lens and its surrounding parts.

“Dear lord.” Renette pulled back. That was dried blood. 

“Virgil, can-can you talk?” Renette didn’t see Virgil’s reaction, she continued looking around the wall for anything else while Parker took pictures with his phone. “That’s okay, can-can you nod your head? So I know you can hear me?”

It was quiet.

“Thank you.” Roland sighed in relief. “Now, I need to know if you can stand. If you can walk out of here? Okay. That-that’s okay but I’m afraid I’m going to have to help you out then.”

There was some shuffling. 

“No no Virgil I promise I’m not going to hurt you. We’re going to take this slow okay. Is it okay if I touch you? I need to put your arm around my shoulder so I can get you out of here.” Roland continued. “Okay-okay I see. How about I ask these two to leave and get my wife Renae. You remember her yeah? She’s a doctor. A really, really nice one. She’s gonna be very gentle and she’s gonna make sure you’re safe. Is that okay? Good. Now we’re gonna leave you, and the woman who’s gonna walk in here next will be Renae. She’s gonna help you out of this room and into one of our cars where she’s gonna take you to the nearest safe place.”

Rolan waved his hand at the other two and they followed him out of the room. Down the hallway Renette saw Renae and Jessica standing outside the room they had been in before. Roland explained to the two what was going to happen and Renae left to get Virgil. 

“What’s going on?” Renette asked as soon as Renae was gone and the four reentered the room where the computers were. 

Alek moved aside, exposing the computer screens, and sitting down on the other side of the room. His head in his lap. On each of the screens a different clip was playing. But all of them exposed what exactly had happened here. 

The first screen showed Virgil sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, their face wasn’t clear but the man screaming relentlessly at them was. Then Renette saw the man slap them harshly before continuing the berating. On the next screen Virgil was pounding on the door until their hands bled, they didn’t stop screaming. The third screen showed Virgil attempting to sleep but a pounding on the door, a screaming through the flap that delivered their food, or some other terrifying tactic kept them from resting. Finally the fourth one, just Virgil, crouched against the wall, body shaking, tears falling. All of it was horrific. Renette stepped back, not letting herself see anything but her own hands.

She heard Renae pass by the room with Virgil and waited until the hall door fell shut before ordering everyone out of the room. 

“What are you going to do?” Jessica asked. 

“Destroy every bit of this.” Renette snarled. 

“But Nettie-” Roland tried. 

“We have enough to convict every person who ever stepped foot in this place!” She snapped back. “This-this isn’t something I want anyone to see. Ever.” 

No one argued. Roland was the last to leave the room, a worried look on his face, but he didn’t hesitate to hand Renette the crowbar he had chosen as his weapon. Oh the man I chose to marry, Renette thought as the door closed behind him. She turned to the USBs that were plugged into the computers. One for each day that Virgil had been trapped in this hell-hole. She took them, shoving them in the inside pocket of her jacket and stepping back. There were files upon files, copies and copies of this horrific treatment. And Renette lifted the crowbar up before coming down on the monitors and computers, yelling as she did so. Her fit of rage smashing each computer to nothing but busted circuit boards and wires. Renette threw the crowbar down at the desk one last time, the steel piercing the thin metal and the wood of the desk. She huffed, leaving the room utterly destroyed. 

When she was outside yet again, she saw that Roland and Parker had stayed behind. Renae had taken Virgil back to her parents and the others had gone back with the evidence they’d gathered to get an official case going as soon as possible. Parker drove Roland and Renette back to Renae’s and said small goodbyes. Telling the both of them to take good care of Virgil. 

Renette had already broken her promise to Virgil once. She wasn’t going to again. 

Over the next week Renette had made several trips to the hospital to steal supplies for Virgil. The poor kid was unable to eat solid foods and had remained almost completely non-verbal. They would only really allow Remy and Renae in their room for extended periods of time. They warmed up to Roland however, and Renette not too far after. However they were still in need of care that they simply couldn’t provide in such a small home. 

Over time Virgil’s malnourished state began getting better and Roland had been able to perform a psychological evaluation. One that proved to be more helpful than they ever could have imagined. Virgil’s official diagnosis concluded they had a Panic Disorder, and autism. With this in mind Roland was able to come up with a treatment plan that was best suited for Virgil. 

However, the family began noticing some strange happenings. Remy and Renae had come to Renette explaining that they felt like they were being watched while Ranae’s mother and father had noticed an unfamiliar car parked in their neighbor’s driveway during the night. This meant Thomas and Emile’s reintroduction to Virgil was going to have to happen a lot faster than they’d have preferred. 

Luckily Emile was someone Remy had been talking about during this whole time and Virgil became comfortable around him quicker than the rest. Thomas was very touch and go, but it seemed as long as Virgil wasn’t alone with him they were alright. Renette became worried at what this could possibly mean so she took a risk. 

Late one night she grabbed her laptop. She knew it was a bad idea but she had to. She watched the tapes. The woman could barely make it through. She had to shut the laptop before she thought she might have a panic attack just watching. However, the tapes had revealed that in these sickening interviews Virgil had talked about the Dragon Witch. And there was likely so much more information that the Rangers would need. So, with much hesitancy, she sent the tapes to Parker, explaining exactly what she needed him to do with them. 

After another week Renette told the others that Patton had been let out of the hospital. She knew how badly Emile and Thomas wanted to go see him, but they also knew what kind of danger that would put them and him in. 

Virgil’s condition wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly better, and it was about time that they went home. Well, to their new home anyway. Roland had worked with Thomas intensely on what to do in order to get his home ready for Virgil, everything had to be perfect and Thomas was going to ensure it. Renette should have expected Thomas to be so involved but she was honestly impressed with him. Though Virgil may not have been so welcoming to Thomas at first, Thomas was certainly ready to drop everything for this kid’s happiness and it no doubt helped the process along. 

When Renette explained to Virgil that it was time for them to be moved to Thomas’s for their safety they seemed content. The move itself went well, Renette and her husband and wife couldn’t stay with them, but Roland and Renette did everything they could for their wife to ensure she could be at Thomas’ to help the transition. Remy stayed until Monday night when it was time for Virgil to begin getting used to being around just Thomas and Emile. Thomas’ hourly updates told Renette that they didn’t speak much but they were good at communicating with gestures and had started really enjoying the tv shows that Emile was showing them. Tuesday morning the Rademeyer family went to the Sanders home to spend some of the day, talk with Virgil, and hopefully Renette could ask the kid a rather difficult question. 

“Virge!” Renette could hear Emile call from the other side of the door. “Remy’s family is here!”

“Okay.” Virgil responded from father away in the house. 

The door opened not much later and Thomas stood looking rather winded. “Come on in.” He said cheerfully. 

Renette led the way inside, Remy’s dog not far behind and said son swiftly after. Renae and Roland took a bit of time bringing the presents in. 

“Oh please tell me you guys didn’t bring all of these for us.” Thomas said, noticing the stacks of wrapped boxes and tissue paper filled bags. 

“No don’t be silly.” Renae said walking past him. “These two here are for you, the rest are for Virgil and Emile.”

“Of course.” Thomas smiled. 

Renette looked over to find Emile holding Remy’s hands over an ornament as he led her son in placing it on the fake green tree, while Virgil came into the room with another box of what Renette assumed were decorations. 

“Decorating for the holidays?” Roland asked, taking the presents over to the tree. 

“We have the day and it’s December.” Thomas shrugged. 

“And it’s Virgil’s first time celebrating the Holidays.” Emile said. “We’re going all out.”

Renette looked around the room, sure enough Emile had set up his menora and other various decorations, as well as the little ceramic town that Remy had given him two years ago as a joke, and now Emile apparently treated it like his pride and joy. Virgil offered the family a wide smile before heading over to the tree and setting the box of decorations down. Apparently awaiting instructions. 

“So there should be some tinsel and snowflake decorations, you can hang those wherever you like.” Emile said kindly. 

Virgil nodded and opened the box, beginning to dig through it before pulling back suddenly and staring at it in disgust.

“Hey, what is it?” Thomas asked, rushing to Virgil’s side.

“I dunno.” Virgil said, “it’s dumb but I just, really don’t like the way those feel.” 

“The tinsel or the ribbon?” Thomas asked, kneeling down to dig through the box. 

“Uhh tinsel.” Virgil said. 

“Okay, that’s fine we don’t have to put it up. I’ll put it with the creepy stuff my mom gave me when I got my first apartment.” Thomas scooped the tinsel out of the box and took it to another room. 

“So Virge how’ve you been doing?” Roland asked, blacing another gift at the base of the tree. 

“Good. Uh, eating’s been tough but I think I’m getting better.” Virgil admitted. “Actually uhm Emile told me that you guys don’t actually know my gender.”

The room went silent. Renette looked over at the kid in a bit of shock. She started rolling through her recent memories and came to the realization that she’d never actually talked to Virgil about anything along those lines, nor had she used they/them pronouns around Virgil. 

“Yeah uh, apparently everyone thinks I’m an actual prince. Or like at least a boy. But you guys think I’m non-binary?” Virgil had a laughter in their-his?her?-eyes that Renette was unbelievably grateful to see. “Well, I’m not either of those. I think the term you all use is genderfluid.” 

“Okay, what pronouns today?” Renae asked, taking a seat on the couch beside Remy’s dog.

“She/her.” Virgil said plainly. 

“Wait what term do you use?” Remy asked. 

“Okay, so,” Virgil sat down, grabbing ribbon from the box and beginning to detangle it. “How I was raised was there were no terms for how people identified, whether it was romantic orientation or gender identity. There was only what pronouns the generals wanted to use. When I got older though I started realizing some pronouns worked sometimes and didn’t other times and well that’s just how I was. I mean I wasn’t the only person on the ship like that, it’s just the only other one was a prisoner.” Virgil looked away. “But anyway! Emile and I were talking and I was like ‘actually I’m a he today’ and Emile was like ‘oh okay, I didn’t know you were genderfluid’ it was kind of a whole thing.” 

“I see.” Roland nodded. “Well it’s very brave of you to tell us.” 

“It is?” Virgil asked.

“Not everyone’s okay with being gender non-conforming so coming out is like a huge thing for the LGBT.” Emile told Virgil. 

“Earth is so strange.” Virgil sighed, going back to the ribbon, her face scrunched in concentration. 

Emile and Remy finished decorating the tree just in time for Emile to help Virgil throw the ribbon around the room. 

“So what else has been going on around here?” Renae asked. Thomas had re-entered the room and began pouring glasses of wine for the adults. 

“I taught Virgil about the Holidays.” Emile said.

“I’d heard of Christmas but I had no idea there were so many other things to celebrate during the cold months of your ridiculous calendar year.” Virgil said.

“Ooo! We should watch a Hallmark movie!” Remy proclaimed.

“That’s a great idea.” Emile said with a smile. “Virge’s first Hallmark movie! It has to be a good one.”

“Oh trust me, I know just the one.” Remy put his hand out and Roland on que handed his son the remote.

While Remy turned on the tv and told it what movie to look up, Thomas handed the glasses to his friends. 

“Hey Virgil,” Renette figured now was as good a time as ever, “Dear can I talk to you in the other room?” 

Virgil looked at her, confused, then back up to Emile.

“Go ahead, I can put the rest of these up.” Emile told her. 

Virgil nodded and led Renette to her new room. Just as Renette had hoped the small room was perfectly Virgil’s. A deep, sweet purple paint covered three of the four walls while the last one was painted black and covered in pinned pictures of Emile, Remy, Virgil, Thomas, Renette and her spouses, and various pictures of bands and tv shows and characters that Renette assumed Virgil was a fan of. There was a little desk next to a window much like Emile’s and various gadgets and figurines on it. Renette knew more decorations and other trinkets would fill the room in time, she just hoped Virgil found comfort in it.

“So,” Renette started with a smile. “This-this is difficult to say but well, while you were held there, videos and recordings were made of your time there.”

“Yeah I-I know.” Virgil said, sitting down on her bed. 

“Well, I just want to know, if-if you’re okay with me sharing those recordings?” Renette asked softly. “Not with the world of course. With uhm, with-”

“The other Power Rangers?” Virgil asked, her voice hesitant. 

“Yes dear.” Renette affirmed. 

“Is it important to your mission?” Virgil asked. 

“I’m afraid so.” Renette nodded. 

“And-and you won’t ask me the questions?” Virgil asked. 

“You know that’s not the best of ideas.” Renette told her. 

Virgil paused, assessing. “Okay. It-it’s okay for them to listen.” 

“Thank you darling.” Renette reached out a tentative hand. Virgil gave her own hand over and squeezed Renette’s. 

“Make sure it’s worth it.” Virgil told her. 

“I promise you I will.” Renette said. “And I actually have some good news. The trial is going to be coming to close by Thursday, hopefully, and the judge certainly seems to be in your favor.”

Virgil nodded. 

“And uhm, you should be getting your citizenship and a passport and everything in a couple weeks. You’ll be a real earthling soon.” Renette smiled, hoping the small gesture would be returned. “There’ll be a few restrictions for you, but nothing extreme. And nothing you couldn’t get away with a few times.”

“Ha, earthling.” Virgil looked down. “That’s so weird sounding.”

“Well, I hope you get used to it.” Renette told her. “I-I just want you to be happy here Virgil. And I really think you will be. It might take time-”

“I’m hopeful.” Virgil said. 

“That’s all I could ask for.” Renette squeezed her hand and got up from the bed. 

The two left with soft smiles and joined the rest of the group in the living room to watch A Princess for Christmas. Renette remembered watching it with Remy for the first time when they had to be alone on christmas a few years ago. Remy had a strange love and appreciation for Hallmark movies, specifically princess christmas movies that took place in made-up european countries. 

The next day Renette found herself back at Thomas’s, this time without her family. She stood in the basement, pacing up and down in front of the teenage boys that sat around a table anxiously. She couldn’t look any of them in the eye. Logan’s leg wouldn’t stop bouncing. Roman and Remus wouldn’t stop fidgeting and Janus couldn’t stop running his hand through his hair. 

“Where’s Virge?” Patton’s voice could be heard coming through Thomas’ door. 

“Pat, please come to the basement.”

“Thomas I don’t know what the hell has been going on these past few weeks, but if you’re about to tell me-”

“We’re going to explain everything, I promise. Just please, come down to the basement.” Thomas begged. 

Patton’s frustrated steps came down the stairs and when he found his friends sitting around the table he looked to Thomas who gestured for him to join them. Patton sat down between Logan and Roman and looked at Renette expectantly. She bit her knuckle gently and kept pacing before stopping curtly and turned to the boys. 

“Let’s begin.”


	28. Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers listen to Virgil's 'interrogations' and Janus and Remus get to meet them all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Janus centric storyline, some fluff to balance out the hard stuff from the past few chapters, friends, Janus and Remus being in love, Patton and Logan being in love, Remus and Virgil being friends!!, mario kart
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, slapping somone, mentions of not eating, mentions of food, angst, yelling, torture, mentions of death, implied parental abuse, fear

Patton was the first to take a break. He didn’t even say a word. He just got up from the table and walked upstairs. Janus didn’t blame him one bit. Frankly, sitting in your guidance counselor’s basement listening to a friend explain in excruciating details the trauma of their childhood while being berated and beaten for no reason, was no way to spend a Friday evening. During this time they’d learned some useful information about Virgil’s past, the Dragon Witch, and even the Rangers themselves, but it all came with the knowledge that they could’ve simply asked rather than forcibly pushing Virgil to their limits in the most barbaric of ways. 

When Patton left, Thomas paused the recording. He said it was a good time for all of the Rangers to take a break from listening. Logan hurried upstairs after Patton while the rest stayed in the basement. Janus examined the whiteboard where Renette had been writing information down with rigor. The notes were rather crudely made but they made sense at least. 

Virgil thinks Rangers were in on kidnapping  
Dragon Witch has a secret but Virgil doesn’t know what it is(could possibly be hiding it)   
Virgil’s home planet destroyed by Dragon Witch  
Virgil + some chemical shit = Virgilius  
Same chemical shit + something called proveric = generals  
Generals raised Virgil

Janus didn’t want to listen any further but he knew he had to. He hated himself for wanting to never listen to this tape ever again. He hadn’t even lived through it! He wasn’t the one being tortured and starved. 

“Hey,” Remus said softly, putting his head on Janus’ shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“No of course not.” Janus crossed his arms. 

“Yeah.” Remus sighed. “Makes sense.”

“How are you?” Janus asked, running his hand sideways through Remus’ hair. 

Remus didn’t really respond. He just buried himself deeper into Janus. It was all the answer he needed. Janus turned and put his hands on the sides of Remus’ face. His sweet boyfriend was the only one of them who hadn’t cried yet. He was staying so strong for the rest of them, he was always so strong. Janus touched their foreheads together and shielding Remus’ face. He saw from the small view he had that Remus’ expression had shifted, it wasn’t the most noticeable but Janus watched as his lips twitched, his eyes fell, the wrinkles around his nose tightened. He was happy he’d provided Remus a moment to be vulnerable. He knew he didn’t deserve to see Remus so open, considering all he had done to him in the past, but he wanted to be there for Remus now. In whatever capacity he could. Patton and Logan had returned, both with red eyes-though not the high kind, more the ‘we just finished crying’ kind-and sat down again in their seats. 

“Are we ready to start up again?” Renette asked.

“I think so.” Roman nodded, sitting back down.

“Yeah.” Patton laced his fingers together on the table.

“Alright.” Renette took her own deep breath. 

She went over to the computer and pressed play. Janus and Remus plopped themselves down next to each other in the chairs and got ready. 

“-xplain!” The man yelled. Janus didn’t like how he was used to the gruff voice. 

“Explain what exactly?” Virgil replied snarkily. “Dude, ya asked me like five questions.”

“The generals! How do you know them! How do they work!” 

“I already told you dicks-for-brains!” Virgil snapped back. “How many times do I have to say it! She doesn’t tell me shit! All I know is that the chemical compound of space stuff that she’s been pumping into me since I was five, and proveric are what makes the Generals! And I didn’t even learn it from her!”

“Then explain what proveric is.” Another voice said. This man was calm. He was always calm. Janus hated him as much as he hated the angry one.

“Honey,” If Janus didn’t know any better he’d think Virgil was smiling. “If you guys don’t know what proveric is, you’re so far behind.”

“Then explain to me why your mom hasn’t killed us all yet like she did your planet.” The calm man spat at Virgil. 

“Do I have to spell out everything for you? See if you can keep up Hawaii Five-O looking bitch.” Virgil told him. “P-O-W-E-R space R-”

“Shut up!!” Janus could hear the angry one slap them harshly. He could hear Virgil groaning softly.

“How about we move on from that, why not talk to me more about your relationship with the generals?” The second man said. 

“Why?” Virgil asked, a little more reserved. 

“I want to know why they sent you. You seem to care for them, I want to know why.” He explained. 

“Don’t lie.” Virgil sighed. “C’mon man, you’re asking me so you can use them against me. I thought we were building a relationship here, relationships are built on trust, right? Isn’t that what you humans always say?”

“Who told you that?” He asked. 

Virgil didn’t respond, but Patton;s knuckles going white and his face contorting told Janus what he needed to know. 

“If you don’t answer you know what happens.” The first man told Virgil. 

Virgil audibly sighed before beginning again. “Yeah yeah, damn okay. The Dragon Witch may be my mom, but she had nothing to do with raising me. She may call me her son and give me a feeding tube, but other than that she wasn’t a mother. The generals had been with her practically since she started her reign. I don't know much about what went on before I was around but since I can remember the generals were the ones who trained me, fed me, taught me how to survive, talked to me about other peoples and cultures, and provided everything for me that a parent should. At least, as far as I know. Let me ask you this Steve-can I call you Steve-I’m calling you Steve, did you grow up in a stable household? Nuclear family, a mom, a dad, maybe they don’t love each other, but they certainly love you? Was that your life? 

'Cause I’ll tell you this, my life, my family, was not that. My earliest memories are of me sitting beside my mother watching as the men and women who cared and loved me were brutally and terribly murdered in thousands of different ways while she tells me everything terrible and wrong about them and what they're doing. Telling me that if I do the same I’ll die, and I won’t come back. Have you ever watched someone die by being impaled with a sword? How about a spear? Or-or blown up? Or had their neck cut open with a dagger? Cause I have. And I’ll tell you this, even knowing that they’ll be back to me the next day doesn’t make it any easier. Cause they may have a new color palette, but they don’t have new memories. They remember the pain and the fear and the anguish of being sliced open like you’re nothing. And having it happen over and over again. Do you have any idea what that does to someone?! Leaving your home knowing full well that you’re being sent off to die a painful death and you don’t even get the release of an eternal sleep?! It drives you mad Steve. It drives you insane. And it makes you do terrible things. Have you ever watched that happen to someone you love? Knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do to help.”

It was quiet. Really, really quiet. 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Was all that Steve said. 

“What?” Virgil asked, they sounded startled. “Yes I did! I-”

“Who told you that humans build relationships based upon trust?” Steve asked, Janus curled back into himself, something about his tone was so bone-chilling he didn’t know what else to do.

Once again no answer.

Then came the sound of a slap again, there was some rustling following it and Virgil whimpered before the movement stalled and it was back to silence. They could hear Virgil spit on the floor and then what sounded like them trying to stop their crying.

“The Pink fucking Ranger.”

. . . 

Saturday, back again at Thomas’. Janus liked Thomas but honestly, he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. Friday night Janus could barely eat his dinner and had facetimed Remus until they were both finally able to sleep. It was a restless sleep for Janus and when he saw the state of everyone else he knew he wasn’t the only one. Roman appeared to have gotten little to no sleep like himself and Remus, Logan hadn’t bothered to get dressed in his usual nerdy outfit and instead walked in wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and Patton looked worse than Janus had ever seen him. As Janus was the last one inside when he arrived the group began heading down stairs, until Thomas pulled Remus and Janus aside. 

“I need to ask the two of you something.” Thomas told them quietly. “I don’t want to tell the others right now because it’s a very, uhm, careful situation but basically if you two would be okay with it, I’d like you both to stay a little later than everyone else? I’ll brief you before you go in of course but basically, if you two wanted to meet and sort of hang out with Virgil I-I would really appreciate it.”

“Really?” Remus asked, he seemed so excited. That brightened Janus’ mood just a bit. 

“We think you two are the best people to go see Virgil first.” Thomas told them. “He-he knows that you guys had nothing to do with, uh ya know. But that doesn’t mean the effects might not still be there, we just think a smooth reintroduction could see how far along Virgil is on recovery and would be good for him. He needs people who can show him what Earth is like. And what friends are. Emile and Remy are great but this has to happen some time and Virgil seems to think he’s ready.”

“And you trust that?” Janus asked. He hoped his tone didn’t sound malicious, he just wanted to know what Thomas thought. 

“I trust Virgil, and while I think it’s a bit early, that doesn’t matter. What matters is what Virgil thinks.” Thomas said. “So are you two-”

“We’re in. Later today, just stay after everyone leaves?” Remus was almost bouncing. 

“Yeah.” Thomas nodded. 

“Okay, sounds like a plan.” Janus affirmed. 

Thomas smiled, Janus hadn’t seen Thomas smile with his eyes in a while, it was good to see again. He started the walk down stairs, followed by Remus and Janus. Remus’ happy smile more than made up for the bad feeling that crept through Janus’ body. He was so ready to see Virgil again and that giddy feeling was quickly replacing the dread in Janus’ blood with pure kid-like excitement. 

The white board today had gotten a new addition and Janus quickly read through what it said again. 

Virgil thinks Rangers were in on kidnapping  
Dragon Witch has a secret but Virgil doesn’t know what it is(could possibly be hiding it)   
Virgil’s home planet destroyed by Dragon Witch  
Virgil + some chemical shit = Virgilius  
Same chemical shit + something called proveric = generals  
Generals raised Virgil  
Generals have gone insane in the past  
Dragon Witch hasn’t moved on to any other planets since attacking Earth  
Dragon Witch’s ship isn’t the only one  
Her plans for humanity are unknown  
She’s turned other races into slaves in the past so. . .   
Dragon Witch has a weakness but still unsure 

“-You’ve been doing well today Virgilius.” This time it was a woman’s voice. Janus remembered her voice from the end of the day before. She was like the calm man, only she was the only one in the room. There was no need for an angry man. “You’ve answered all my questions so far.”

Janus hated to hear how true that was. He wasn’t sure how long Virgil had been there at this point but the kid had certainly given up on their snark. They just did as the interrogators asked with an exhausted, scratchy voice. 

“I just have a couple more.” She said. “Then we can be done for now.”

Virgil made a noise but Janus wasn’t sure what they were trying to convey.

“Now, why don’t you tell me why you haven’t been eating?” She asked. 

“I can’t. I don’t know why, I’m not a doctor, but I can’t eat that stuff. It-it hurts really badly.” Virgil replied. 

“Alright.” She said, unconvinced. “And those scratches, what are those?”

“They’re from yesterday. After he left. I tried to find a way out of here.” 

“Hmm, are you still looking for a way out?” 

“I-” Virgil stopped. 

“You know it’s pointless don’t you. It finally hit you, you’re never getting out.” She sounded too happy about that. Janus felt his blood boil as she spoke. “You understand that don’t you? That you’re never leaving this place. You deserve to be here after all.”

It was quiet. 

“You’ll waste away if you don’t eat.” The woman said blankly. Her malicious tone was gone. 

“I told you I can’t.” Virgil cried. 

“Let’s move on then.” The audio had cut. It didn’t sound like a natural transition, something had happened between those two sentences and Janus wanted to know, yet knew he wouldn’t like the answer. “In earlier interviews you alluded to your mother having a secret, having something for herself. Do you know what it is?” 

“I do.” Virgil told her. They sounded different. They sounded choked up. Sick even.

“Is it a weakness, a strength?” The woman asked. “Something that we could use to kill her?”

“Maybe you could. It’s both.” Virgil responded. 

“Explain in detail.” 

“Well, they-they’re a weapon. It’s how she’s so powerful and-and how she’s gained so much power. She’s used them to destroy entire civilizations.”

“Like yours?” Now Janus knew she was smiling. 

“Mhm.” Virgil resigned themself to answering. “They’re extremely powerful and-and they make her powerful but they’re killing her. She’s so much more powerful than humans without them but not even she can stand their power. It’s too much for one being to handle. They’re constantly taking so much energy from her that she has to inject herself with proveric just to stay alive, but the only reason she can even take the proveric is because they need a host and so they’re keeping her alive just enough to take her energy. Like-like a virus. It’s keeping her alive because if it didn’t then its power would be lost, but it uses so much power she can’t sustain it long enough.”

“So she has a virus?” 

“No.” Virgil said firmly. “She has the white and gold Power Ranger morphers.”

Everyone in the room gave their various reactions. Remus’s jaw dropped and he looked toward Janus to see if he’d heard right, Roman clapped his hand to his mouth and stared at the computer, Logan practically hopped up from his seat, Patton’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his skull, and Janus could hear his heartbeat in his ears as the blood rushed through him. 

“What?!” Renette said aloud. 

“Oh my god.” Thomas sighed, taking a seat. 

“Pat did you know?” Logan asked. 

“No Virge hadn’t told me that.” Patton said quickly. 

“Holy shit!” Remus exclaimed. “H-how is that-what?!”

“How is that possible?” Roman asked. 

“Thomas I thought there were only our morphers!” Janus looked to the older man concerned. 

“So did I!” Thomas told him. 

“I’ve never heard of this!” Renette raked a hand through her hair. “Dear god.”

“Wait wait everyone shut up!” Roman ordered. “Renette go back , they're still talking.”

Renette turned to the computer and started fidgeting with it before stepping back. 

“-anger morphers.” Virgil’s finished once again. 

“What?!” The woman’s placid character broke. “The-there’s more?”

“As far as I know there used to be hundreds.” Virgil said. “I don’t know the details I swear! But they were all destroyed at one point. Save for a few.”

“And-and she has two of them?”

“Well, the White and Gold morphers are sort of a package deal.” Virgil said. 

Thomas rushed over to the white board and started writing notes fast. 

“They do everything as a pair. They choose their host as a pair, they leave their host together, their weapons combine to one, even their zords are connected.” Virgil stated. 

“And they can only have one host?”

“No.” Virgil corrected. “Though in history they mostly have one host that they share, it is possible for the two morphers to split amongst two hosts, it’s just that the hosts have to have a sort of bond with each other. An unparalleled one really.”

“Hmm.” The woman thought about her next question closely. “And why have you not told us this before?”

“Wh-what?” Virgil asked, their voice was so quiet now.

“We’ve asked you plenty of times for everything you know about the Dragon Witch, about your mother, yet every time you failed to mention she was possibly the most powerful being in the universe because of her own morphers. Why?”

Virgil took their time. “Uhm, I-I don’t-I don’t know.” They sounded scared. 

“You do know.” The woman said, her voice was bordering on angry now. “You know exactly why.”

“I don’t!” Virgil said, they sounded like they were breaking now. “Please wait, I-I really don’t know.”

“You didn’t tell us because you still love her! You’re still her son and you’re still loyal to her!” The woman yelled. “You’re still her little general!”

“Stop it!” 

“Her monster!” She snarled.

“No!!”

“But now, oh-ho now you know that she isn’t coming. Mommy isn’t coming to save you! You’re going to die here and you know it!” She sounded gleeful as she screamed at them. 

“I want to go home!” Virgil cried. Janus wanted to cover his ears, it was so painful. 

“You don’t have a home! Your own mother destroyed it!” The woman sounded like she was cackling. “She doesn’t love you and you’re pathetic enough to still protect her! You’re just her useless little kid!”

This time there wasn’t a response. All the Rangers could hear was heavy, heavy breathing. In and out. 

“What the hell?” The woman asked, now confused. “What are you doing? Stop that!”

Virgil cried out again, they continued sobbing. 

“What’s wrong with him?!” The woman yelled to her side. 

“I don’t know!” Another voice that Janus hadn’t heard before called. 

“Stop that!” The woman shouted. 

The audio cut. It was quiet now. Very quiet. Janus hadn’t realized he started crying until he felt eyes on him. He looked around to see everyone looking at him in various stages of concern. He was surprised to see he was the only one who’d broken into large flooding tears. Remus scooched over to him and pulled Janus into his chest. Janus cried into Remus’ shirt. 

“So, what are some of her other w-”

Renette stopped the recording. The new woman’s voice was cut and the room went back to quiet, save for Janus’s soft sobs. 

“Let’s get some water.” Renette ordered more than suggested. 

Janus felt his boyfriend nod and he began helping Janus up. Janus wiped at his eyes aggressively and followed Remus upstairs, the others right behind them. Everyone stood around in the kitchen, quiet. Thomas had given everyone a glass and was now standing beside Janus, comforting him, but Janus couldn’t really hear it. He appreciated the effort nonetheless. Renette was pacing back and forth, texting with vigor. Patton and Logan seemed to be in their own little bubble, Logan whispering things in Patton’s ear that made him giggle, kept him distracted. Their pinkies locked together. Remus was talking to Roman about something Janus didn’t know but figured Remus would fill him in later. 

Then there was a knock at the door. Everyone was startled away from what they were doing and stared at it. Thomas moved to the door slowly, the Rangers and Renette had all reached for something that could be used as a weapon, Janus himself had finished his water and was ready to break the glass to use any second. Thomas hesitantly looked out the door before sighing and opening the door. 

“Virge what are you doing back?” Thomas asked. 

“Uh it’s cold.” Virgil said. 

Their voice was so different from the recording. Still scratchy, but less fearful, less broken. Thomas moved aside and Virgil stepped through the door. 

“Besides I was getting bored.” Virgil shrugged. 

They looked so different from when Janus had seen them a week ago. Well, their face was about the same, but they seemed to have gained back some weight, though not much, and certainly appeared happier. Less exhausted. And they seemed very comfortable with Thomas. 

“Sorry I didn’t realize I had to be home so much later.” Virgil said with a bit of a snicker. Janus liked the way they said home. The way they called Thomas’ house their home. 

“You didn’t, I just wasn’t expecting you to be back so early.” Thomas said with a smile. 

Virgil didn’t see the Rangers. They kept their gaze on Thomas intently. 

“Ah.” Virgil nodded. “So, is Emile home? Or is he still out on his date?”

“It’s not a date.” Thomas replied, his voice mimicking Emile’s. “We’re just good friends.”

Virgil chuckled. They apparently already had jokes together. Virgil headed down the hallway with a wave to Thomas and the room’s atmosphere didn’t still until their door could be heard closing. Thomas walked back over to the group who seemed rather in awe of what happened. Janus himself could barely believe what he’d just seen. 

“They look so . . . “ Patton paused. “So much better.”

“They are better.” Thomas said with a smile. 

“Janus, Remus, why don’t you two go ahead.” Renette gestured toward the hallway.

“What?” Janus asked. 

“Really?” Remus lit up and walked over to Janus, grabbing his hand firmly. 

“I thought you wanted us to go later?” Janus pointed out. 

“No, it’s a good idea to go now.” Thomas said. “Keep him away from the basement.”

“Yeah we can fill you two in later.” Roman said. 

Janus wondered how he knew the plan but didn’t give it much thought, what he cared about now was possibly seeing Virgil. 

“Just uhm, before you go, some preliminary things,” Renette said. “Virgil is genderfluid, though he isn’t particular to that term, today his pronouns are he/him, but feel free to ask. Also he’s been diagnosed with a panic disorder and autism, so please be careful when it comes to physical touch and keep your voice low.”

“Got it.” Remus nodded. “Can we?”

“Yeah go on.” Thomas sent them off. 

Remus giddily led his boyfriend down the hall to the last door, one that previously opened to a guest room. Remus moved to open it and barge in, but he stopped himself, stepping back and pulling his hand to his chest. He looked to Janus a little nervously and Janus decided to knock on the door softly. 

“Door’s unlocked.” Virgil’s voice from inside said. 

Remus smiled again and turned the handle. Virgil looked up from whatever they were writing in a notebook and stared. Janus couldn’t really tell what expression they were making but Janus didn’t take it as one he should be worried about. Instead he looked around the room. It was already painted colors that seemed very fitting for Virgil’s general aura. On the wall furthest away was a collage of pictures that Janus could see contained Emile and Thomas and the Rademeyers. Virgil’s closet doors were open and inside there appeared to be a full wardrobe of clothing that Remy and Emile had probably helped pick out. 

“Huh.” Virgil said, closing his notebook and setting it aside. “So this is why Thomas wanted me back later.”

“Guess so yeah.” Remus responded. 

Virgil wasn’t looking at them any more. In fact he seemed to be looking anywhere that wasn’t eye contact with the two. 

“Is it okay if we come in?” Janus asked. 

“I guess yeah.” Virgil said, shifting on his bed. “Renette wants us to talk and stuff.”

Remus and Janus walked inside, getting a better view of the room. Janus closed the door behind him and examined once again. There was various furniture, stuff that reminded him of Emile’s set up, and some other items around. One thing that was noticeable was the tv across from the bed and the nintendo switch plugged into it. 

“So. . .” Remus said. “This is kinda awkward.”

“Yeah.” Janus nodded. 

“Probably because the last time we talked you guys tried to get me to join your thruple.” Virgil stated. 

Janus choked on his own spit as Remus laughed. 

“Ha, yeah that-that’s right.” Janus said, trying to hide his smile. 

“I mean the offer’s still open.” Remus said slyly.

“Not the time babe.” Janus sighed, he turned to Virgil who now looked amused. 

“Aww.” Remus whined. 

“This is what I deal with.” Janus told Virgil exasperated. “Daily.”

“And you can too.” Remus teased.

“Remus.” Janus said warningly. 

Virgil laughed at that. 

“Wait wait,” Remus walked over to Virgil’s tv. “Is-is that a switch?”

“Mhm.” Virgil nodded. “It’s not mine though, Emile just doesn’t use it much anymore.”

“What games do you got?” Remus asked. 

“Uhh, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, that Zelda one, and the other Mario one but not with karts.” Virgil said excitedly. 

“Ooo!” Remus grabbed the controls excitedly. “Do you have another controller? We should play Mario Kart.”

“No no I’m not playing Mario Kart.” Janus said firmly. 

“Jan c’mon.” Remus whined again. 

“Why won’t you play?” Virgil asked curiously. 

“Cause he’s a pussy.” Remus teased, tossing a controller in Virgil’s direction. He caught it and giggled a bit. 

“I am not.” Janus defended. 

“Janus beats me at every game we play, except Mario Kart. And he never wants to play it.”

“Cause it’s the one thing he knows he can’t win?” Virgil less asked Remus and more asked himself. 

“Exactly.” Remus nodded. “It’s annoying.”

“Alright bitch I’ll play. But I get to be Rosalina.” Janus stated. 

“Uh the other controllers are in that basket.” Virgil told Remus who crouched down and grabbed them. 

“No way.” Remus said. “You do not get to be Rosalina.”

“It’s either Rosalina or I’m not playing.” Janus stated.

“Uuuugh, fine.” Remus tossed a controller Janus’ way and made his way back to the two. “I’ll just be Waluigi.”

“Who are you gonna play?” Janus asked Virgil. 

“Uhh I don’t know. I’ve never played.” Virgil said. The tv was starting up and Virgil flipped the screen over to the start menu of Mario Kart. 

“Okay so, since it’s your first time just uh,” Remus pointed to the menu and showed Virgil what to click. “We’ll put it on the easiest setting.”

When it came time Janus and Remus selected their characters. 

“So what I do when choosing my Mario Kart character is I made a list of them from biggest to smallest dick.” Remus said. “Then I pick the one with the biggest dick and keep going down my list.”

“And Rosalina?”

“Has big dick energy. Second to her is Waluigi.” Remus told him.

“Right.” Virgil said, skeptical. “Janus?”

“When I was little I just chose the prettiest characters and then got really good at them.” He shrugged in response. 

“Well not really good.” Remus nudged.

“Shut up.” Janus deadpanned. 

“Got it.” Virgil nodded. He started moving his controller around, testing it, before selecting Daisy. 

. . . 

“Hey, what do I gotta do to get my picture on your wall?” Remus asked. 

Janus and his boyfriend were once again in Virgil’s room, and were playing Mario Kart for the fourth time that week. 

“What?” Virgil asked. 

“You know you’re-yes suck it Mario-collage wall.” Remus pointed to it swiftly before going back to focus on his game. 

“Oh you want your picture on my wall.” Virgil clarified. “Yeah uh, hand me that box of Cheez-its?”

Janus reached to his left and handed the box on the floor to Virgil on the bed. 

“Thanks Janus, you’re officially getting your picture on my wall.” 

“Wha-ah!” Remus paused the game. “So not fair! That was what I was gonna do!”

“Maybe you should have been faster then.” Janus teased. 

“Well sorry I’m focused on the game.” Remus pointed to the tv. “Unlike you twelfth place.”

“Shut up!” Janus shoved his hand in Remus’ face. 

Janus heard the game’s sounds start up again and turned to see Virgil had started up again without the two of them. 

“Virge!” Remus scooped his remote up and went back to playing. 

“Rude!”

“That’s how the game works.” Virgil shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.” 

“It certainly seems like you do.” Janus rolled his eyes. 

“Hey shut it twelfth place it’s not like you’re gonna win.”

“Yeah twelfth place.” Virgil cut in. 

“Okay this ganging up on me thing, not fun.” 

“Hmm eat glass!” Remus snickered. 

“Lick a rusty fork.” Janus snapped back.

“Get a papercut on your neck.”

“Screw a beehive.”

“Swallow a brick.”

“Eat deodorant.”

“Ha F you I like the way deodorant tastes!” Remus said triumphantly. 

“Why the hell are we dating?”

“Yes!!” Virgil cheered, her hands shooting up into the air before they fell back on the bed. 

“Noooooo!!” Remus whined, seeing that Virgil had shot ahead of him just in time and taken first place. “Damn you.”

“Haha I own this game!” Virgil snickered. 

“Ugh!” Remus groaned. 

“Feels bad to lose doesn’t it.” Janus said, lowly.

“You would know! You’re not even done with the course!” 

“Not true!”

“Ooh you just finished, wow.” Remus said in mock awe. 

“Ugh whatever, I’m hungry.” Janus stated. 

“Ooo maybe you could eat some of that glass.” Virgil suggested snarkily, getting up off the bed and heading toward the door.

“Or lick a rusty fork.” Remus shrugged following them out. 

The two continued suggested nondigestible objects that Janus could eat as the group made their way to the kitchen and scavenged for food.

“Hey hey!” Thomas said from the couch. “Don’t eat the cookies, eat those after dinner.” 

“Yeah yeah.” Virgil sighed, putting the package of oreos back. 

“How did he know?” Remus whispered. 

“He always knows.” Virgil whispered back. 

After grabbing some foods that were decidedly not oreos the three bid Thomas a goodbye and headed back to Virgil’s room to play more games. Janus loved seeing his tall boyfriend and their new friend get along so well, even if it was at his expense. He knew that the two didn’t really mean anything by it. Besides, seeing his two favorite people so happy basically meant Janus could get hit with Sedan carrying a Christmas tree and still be happy. He laughed at his own thoughts, that was something Remus would have said. 

Janus and Remus found their places on the floor yet again and Virgil took her place on her bed. Getting the game ready. Then there was a knock at the door. The three looked at each other questionably but didn’t say anything. 

“Uh, come in?” Virgil said. 

The door opened hesitantly and Roman, Logan, and Patton revealed themselves to the group. Janus didn’t pay those three any attention, all his focus was on Virgil. It wasn’t yet easy for Janus to tell what all her little inflections meant but Virgil seemed rather shocked to see three more Power Rangers showing up at their door. 

“Hey.” Patton seemed rather surprised to see Janus and Remus there. 

“Hi.” Virgil responded softly, they seemed startled but she turned back to Janus and Remus before looking back over, her breathing calming back down steadily. 

“Uhm, what are you guys up to?” Patton asked.

“Playing Mario Kart.” Janus said at the same time as Remus saying: “Kicking Janus’ ass in Mario Kart.”

“Nice.” Logan crossed his arms. “I’d love to kick Janus’ ass in Mario Kart.”

“Ah!” Janus gave an offended gasp. 

“Here!” Virgil reached out and handed the final controller to Logan. They scooted aside, patting the bed beside her. Logan took his seat next to Virgil and started up his controller. 

“Virge is like crazy good at this game.” Remus warned. 

“We’ll see about that.” Logan said with a sly smile. 

“I’m sorry is that a challenge?” Virgil asked excitedly. 

“Perhaps it is.” 

“Well then, Patton perhaps I’m about to kick your boyfriend’s ass in Mario Kart.” Virgil stated. 

“You’d be so lucky. Get ready to regret bringing Patton into this.” Logan chose Yoshi as his character. 

“I have a feeling I won’t regret shit.” Virgil said as she clicked on Daisy’s icon. 

“I don’t know what’s happening but I really hope it doesn’t stop.” Remus whispered to Janus. 

“Same.” Janus replied.

The game began once again and this time Janus didn’t even try. He knew he wasn’t going to win but that was fine, looking around at his lovely boyfriend’s face, scrunched in concentration, Virgil and Logan’s traded jabs at each other, Roman’s attention on the game, and Patton’s loving stares at Logan made him all the happier. Just as long as things stayed like this everything would be just fine.


	29. Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a filler episode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Remus centric storyline, fluff, Virgil being helpful, the Rangers being excited
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, torture, implied torture, mentions of food, mentions of anxiety, angst, mentions of weapons

Remus was starting to wonder if he should keep going to Thomas’. It was really starting to feel like every time they went to Thomas’ was gonna be an absolute depression fest. It used to be a good excuse to get out of the house and see his boyfriend, but now it was just making him upset. They had gone back to listen to some of the stuff that they had skipped from the second day of Virgil’s kidnapping, and Remus wanted nothing more than for it to be over. 

“Can you just answer the question?” The first man asked, he sounded annoyed and Remus couldn’t help the little bit of pride at that fact. 

“Whatever Steve.” VIrgil scoffed. “Look, there really isn’t much to it. Your Rangers simply aren’t good at keeping their identities secret.”

“Well our press doesn’t know their identities.”

“Because humans are dumbasses.” Virgil dead-panned. “Literally day one, the twins come and attack me, no suits on and they’re the first humans in like five years to ever do that besides the Black Ranger. Then suddenly two more Power Rangers show up? It’s really not hard to conclude.”

“Stop with the attitude.” The second man, the one that Virgil had simply deemed ass-hat, snapped. 

“Stop with your face.” Virgil snapped back. “That didn’t make sense.”

“Alright, I’ll give you the first two, what about the others?” Steve asked. 

“Okay well, I literally saw the Blue and Yellow Rangers get their morphers, like right in front of me.” Virgil said simply. 

“How did you learn their names though?” Steve asked angrily. 

“Uhh maybe the fact that they called each other by their names all the time.” Virgil practically cackled. “I mean sure they tried to call each other by their colors but honestly it did not work. And for real, it’s not hard to figure out. It’s not like there are many Remus’ or Janus’ in Sporks Florida.”

“What about the Pink Ranger?” 

“Again, they called him Pat like a million times. After that I just had to do some light stalking and I had it all figured out.” 

“Elaborate on the light stalking.” Steve told him. 

“Ooo elaborate, I see you’ve cracked open a dictionary Stevie, learning some big boy words.” Virgil jeered. “Basically I sent a polluur down on Earth with a camera attached to it to follow the Rangers around. Eventually through gossip and not-so-difficult snooping I found out who the Pink Ranger was. The Black Ranger though? That guy covered his tracks. Proud of him.”

“What’s a polluur?” Ass-hat asked. 

“Christ do you guys not know anything!?” Virgil sighed. “A polluur is a small animal, like a cat or a big rat or whatever, that can turn invisible on command if trained well. They’re basically everywhere. You guys really don’t have those?”

“So you sent this thing down to Earth to follow around the Power Rangers?”

“Yes. It barely had to be down there for a few hours by the way.” Virgil sighed. 

“And did you know about the plot to kidnap the Pink Ranger?”

Virgil was quiet. Starkly quiet. 

“Answer him.” Ass-hat snarled. 

“No.” Virgil replied quietly. “I didn’t. I wasn’t allowed to go back to Earth, basically trapped in my room and tortured-not unlike now-and then one day Astro showed up and basically left Patton with me.”

“And you didn’t know because?”

“Because she didn’t trust me.” 

“And what is your relationship with this Astro?” Steve asked. 

“She’s like a parent.” Virgil said hesitantly. 

“And what more can you tell us about her?”

“Nothing.” Virgil said. 

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know a lot about her. Nothing important anyway. She hates cats if that’s what you want to know.”

“Why are you lying to me Virgilius?” Steve asked, he sounded almost smug about it. “Like you said, relationships are built on trust. Why are you lying to me?”

“I-I-” Virgil stopped. “I’m not lying. I really don’t know anything useful.”

“I think you do and you’re lying about it.” Steve said. “How can we conduct a proper interview when our subject is lying to us?”

“Stop!” Virgil shrieked. “Stop calling this an interview!! You’re not interviewing me!! You’re torturing me! An interview is asking someone questions who wants to be asked questions! What you’re doing is torturing me! Not letting me sleep, not listening to what I need, hurting me for information! Don’t act like you’re being nice to me! Like I’m just giving you all of this information because you asked nicely! I don’t care why you keep acting like this is an interview, whether it’s cause you think it’s fun or cause it helps you sleep better at night! You’re torturing me!!”

It was quiet for a beat. 

“Turn off the recording.” Steve growled. 

“What?” Ass-hat asked surprised. 

“You heard me!” He snapped. “Turn it off.”

“What the hell?” Virgil asked quietly. “Wait hang on-”

It stopped. 

“And that’s it for today.” Renette said. She did her best to not show any emotion but she seemed just as broken by that as the rest of them were. “Now, let’s move on, I’m going to go get Virgil while Thomas finished up with the notes and you all take a breather.”

She went upstairs quickly, the little choking in her voice had caught up to her and she wanted to be out of sight before truly letting herself crack.

Remus stood up, stretching and heading to the mini fridge in hope of finding some sort of alcohol. Hell he’d take a White Claw at this point. No, that wasn’t true, he’d never drink a White Claw, but he did decide to drink the pepsi that Janus had only drank half of last time they were there. 

“What’s Virgil gonna be talking about?” Patton asked Thomas. 

“I’m not totally sure.” Thomas shrugged, finishing off with his notes. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you all.”

“Okay.” Roman nodded. 

The others gave Thomas their full attention. 

“When Virgil came back with us he had a bag.” Thomas started. Remus remembered it. 

“The one for Patton right?” Logan asked.

“Yes.” Thomas nodded. “Uhm, however after Virgil was taken the bag was left with us and well, we believe that something was put in the bag that Virgil didn’t mean for there to be.”

“Like what?” Janus asked. 

“It-it’d sort of like a hard drive, but it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen. None of us could really figure out what it was or what it did, but it’s addressed to him.” Thomas admitted. “However, we haven’t told Virgli about it.”

“What?” Patton asked. 

“Thomas.” Logan sighed. 

“We don’t know what it is.” Thomas tried. “We don’t know if it could be bad for Virgil so we’re keeping it a secret for now but, well, you all are going to be spending more time with Virgil I assume. I just, I want you all to let me know when you think it would be a good time to give the drive to him.”

“Thomas that’s-” 

“Shush.” Remus quieted Patton. Renette and Virgil’s footsteps could be heard just above them and the basement door opened, effectively ending the conversation. 

When Virgil and Renette were downstairs the Rangers went back to their usual places. No longer sitting around the uncomfortable table, instead lounging on the beanbags and inflatable furniture. 

“So, uh, Renette says you guys don’t know like anything about the White and Gold Power Rangers.” Virgil said quietly. 

“Yeah.” Thomas nodded encouragingly. 

“Okay, so,” Virgil looked around. “Can I use that white board? It would be a lot easier if I can-”

“Of course.” Renette walked with Virgil over to one of the open white boards that lined the room. 

Remus didn’t miss the way Virgil’s eyes lingered over the notes that had been taken while listening to the recordings. Remus took a note of what Virgil was wearing, black jeans and a loose t-shirt. Frankly Remus was jealous that Virgil could look so good in such a simple outfit, but he figured one of these days he’d get Virgil into some real fashion. 

“So, uhm, a really really long time ago there used to be thousands of Power Rangers. And they weren’t exactly color coded.” Virgil explained, writing stuff down that Remus couldn’t entirely see from his vantage point. “Then, well, it's a little vague but around the same time that the old religion died out and the new replaced it, the majority of the Morphers were lost.”

“What are the old and new religions?” Logan asked. 

“Basically religions that are similar to ancient Greece or ancient Rome but have way more major gods, way less screwing, and had a really big impact on the culture of the universe.” Virgil said. “I can go into more detail about that later, but anyway from what I’ve grown up knowing, there are only a few morphers left.”

Virgil turned to the board, writing them down. “Red, Green, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Black, White, Gold, Rose, and Violet. Now, Rose and Violet aren’t any of our concerns right now. The Rose Power Ranger hasn’t been seen in over a decade and the violet morpher is like your morphers to Thomas’. The Black Ranger is the keeper of the other morphers until they’ve found a proper host. Same goes for Rose and Violet.”

“Okay.” Logan responded. 

Remus saw as Virgil erased the Rose and Violet written down on the board. 

“You guys all know about your morphers, so I’m just gonna move one from those.” Virgil wrote white and gold down in a separate place on the white board and continued sketching. “Basically the White and Gold morphers are a pair. They can’t survive without one another. Oftentimes they would take one host together, in the theory this is how the ruler of the gods was chosen. When the White and Gold morphers chose a host, it’s thought that they decided who would be the most powerful being in the universe. Now, unlike your morphers the White and Gold morphers don’t have any sense of moral compass. They chose a host or hosts based on these parameters.”

Virgil made some bullet points and started filling them in. 

“1. They have to be strong enough to handle the power. 2. They have to be confident with their own abilities. 3. If the two decide to pick two separate hosts they have to have a bond with one another that is unparalleled. This can be romantic, platonic, familial, it doesn’t matter. It just has to be strong. And 4. They have to believe what they’re doing is right.” Virgil finished. 

“What do you mean by that last one?” Janus asked. 

“Well, your morphers all have their own senses of morality-I’m not entirely sure how but let’s just move on from that before I get a headache-but the White and Gold morphers don’t really have that. They make a ranger or rangers out of people that truly deeply believe what they are doing is for the betterment of everyone.” Virgil said. 

“Okay.” Janus nodded. 

“Now,” Virgil moved on to a different place. “What they do.” Virgil wrote this down as well. “The Gold morpher creates a staff, this can shoot out beams of energy and whatever. Like Patton’s arrows this can create different types of damage, but Patton’s arrows depend on Pattons’ mood, the Gold morpher’s ability depends solely on the strength of the Ranger. The White morpher creates a sort of chain. Similar to uhm, Amethyst from Steven Universe! But, it’s a long spiked chain with this like, pointing thingy at the end.”

“And their zords?” Roman asked. 

“Well, zords aren’t the same from Ranger to Ranger. The last Yellow Ranger certainly didn’t have a snake zord. However, her zords are a little difficult to explain. See, she’s not strong enough anymore to be the carrier of the White and Gold morphers, but they haven’t found anyone strong enough, or a bond strong enough to replace her yet. Because of this she’s not strong enough to summon her zords.” Virgil stated, still writing this down. “And, like all of your zords, which can sort of morph together to create a giant robot thingy, the White and Gold morphers can do the same. The zords can join together to create a uhm a powerful weapon.”

“What sort of weapon?” Thomas asked, a hesitancy in his voice that Remus wasn’t familiar with. 

“Well, I-I don’t know. I’ve never seen it. And the Generals never answered me when I asked. I wish I could tell you but honestly I have no idea what it is.” Virgil looked away from him. Focusing hard on the board.

“Thank you Virgil.” Renette smiled kindly at them. 

Virgil nodded and put down the marker, beginning to make their way to the door when Renette stopped them. 

“Actually, I want you to stay.” Renette said. “There’s still some things that I have to discuss with the Rangers and you have to be here.”

“Okay.” Virgil gave her a minute smile before turning to the Rangers, a bit of panic in their eyes as they scanned for a place to sit. 

Patton seemed to recognize this and moved a bit motioning to Virgil to join him on the inflatable couch. Virgil did.

“Now, as most of you know every year the Power Rangers make a sort of appearance at the New Year's Day Parade.” Renette began. “And this year, you all have been invited to do so.”

The room exploded in cheers. 

“Calm down, calm down.” Renette laughed. 

“You really made me think something bad had happened again.” Roman huffed. 

“I know I just couldn’t help myself.” Renette chuckled. “Now, you’ll all be going to New York, and staying there for a few days. On New Year’s Eve I’ll be getting you all and taking you to your place in the parade. Of course you’ve been invited to a few other celebrations so I’ll be combing through those and in a week I’ll present you all with your choices. Now, your hotel is booked and paid for and the plane-”

“Wait we’re gonna be taking a plane?” Remus asked. 

“Well, yeah.” Renette said, a little dumbfounded. “Do you not want to?”

“I think we should do a road trip.” Remus said with a grin. 

Various ‘yes’s and ‘no’s went through the room. 

“Really?!” Roman sighed. “We get to go on a fancy plane to the big apple and stay in a fancy hotel and you’d rather drive a stupid car?”

“Well I can’t drive, someone else would.” Remus shrugged. “Road trips are so much more fun than flying anyway.”

“Not when flying is fancy!” Roman argued. 

“Well,” Renette looked like she was seriously thinking about it. “That would make Virgil’s situation a lot easier.”

“Virgil’s situation?” Patton asked. 

“I’m sorry what’s my situation?” 

“Well, you’re not exactly cleared for flying just yet.” Renette said. “You have to be a citizen for six months before you can get cleared for flights. You can cross state lines and stuff just no going to other countries and no flying.”

“Wait then how were you going to get them to New York to begin with?” Janus asked her. 

“I was gonna lie.” Renette stated. “But this road trip idea is way more convenient.”

“No come on I wanna fly on a fancy plane!” Roman whined. 

“Patton what do you think?” Logan asked. 

“Well,” Patton contemplated his answer. “I get a lot of anxiety on planes.” He admitted. “I honestly think I’d prefer driving.”

“Yes! That’s three votes for team flying!” Remus cheered. 

“Three?” Janus looked at him. 

“Yeah, me, Patton, and Virge.” Remus said. 

“I dunno, the idea of sneaking onto a plane sounds kinda fun.” Virgil teased. 

“Oh come on.” Remus turned around and gave them the best puppy-dog eyes that he could. 

“Okay okay!” Virgil held their hands up in surrender. “Please stop looking at me like that. I vote road trip.”

“I do as well.” Logan said. 

Remus could see as he tried to appear nonchalant about it but the red spreading through Logan’s ears told him that Logan had seen the way Patton lit up at Logan’s choice.

“Okay, why don’t Roman and I get to take the plane while these idiots do their stupid road trip.” Janus tried. 

“Nope.” Renette shook her head. “It’s all of you or none of you. And it looks like you’ve been outvoted.”

“Dammit.” Janus mumbled. 

“I hate you guys.” Roman sunk into his bean bag. 

“So Thomas you can tell Emile that it’s just gonna be us four on the plane and-”

“Whoa whoa!” Roman and Janus shot up. 

“You and Thomas get to go on a plane?!” 

“That’s so unfair!” 

“You made your choice.” Renette said, pulling out her phone and typing away. “I have to make a call.”

“But it wasn’t my choice.”Janus sighed. 

“I can’t believe you assholes.” Roman pouted.

“This is gonna be awesome!” Remus clapped. 

“I’ve never been on a friend road trip.” Patton said. “I can’t wait! Ooo! Maybe I can film a video there!”

“For your YouTube channel?” Virgil asked. 

“Yeah! I can do like a vlog or something! Take videos of our time there!” Patton stood up suddenly. “Oh my gosh we can spend a whole day there shopping and-and we can get our hair done like we talked about! And Remy and Emile can help us go clothes shopping! And-”

“I’m excited too, Pat.” Virgil said, standing up with him. 

“Oh my god, our first Christmas together is gonna be amazing and then we get to go to New York for New years!” Patton was practically glowing. “Virge this is gonna be the best time of your life! I promise!”

“Not that high of a bar but okay.” Virgil shrugged. 

Remus laughed at that. “Virgil I can’t wait to show you everything you need to know about the world. You can learn it all in New York.”

“We can get so much pizza!” Patton laughed.

“And look at the coolest fashion!” Remus got up and joined the two in their excitement. 

“And see the fireworks right there in Times Square!” Patton grabbed Remus’ hand and started bouncing on his feet. 

“And sneak into the most high end parties and clubs and get totally trashed!”

Patton laughed cheerfully and Remus joined him. 

“We can meet so many cool celebrities.” Roman sighed dreamily. 

“And go see the natural history museum.” Logan offered. 

“And do things that aren’t totally boring.” Janus rolled his eyes at Logan. 

“Have you ever ran around a city half lost for twelve hours, eaten greasy deep dish pizza, accidentally smoked weed, bought more than your body weight in clothes, and passed out in the middle of making out with a stranger in a gold hotel room?” Remus asked Virgil. 

“No.” Virgil shook their head. 

“Well get ready then.” Remus smiled mischievously. “Cause Pat was right. This is gonna be the best damn time of your life.”


	30. ghkldfskadlfjasdlfjasld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman's in desperate need of a break, and finds inspiration for a devious plan in his sorrows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Roman centric storyline, Patton and Logan, Naomi, Virgil, Pat and Lo being sneaky, Naomi being the best character I’ve ever written, Virgil being adorable because I freaking said so!!
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, theater troop, the musical Mamma Mia!, food, eating, keyboard smashes

Roman really needed a break. Between his duties as a Power Ranger really weighing on him emotionally, to stress over finals, to the practices for the winter musical, to his parents being so secretive and angry lately, he just needed a break from it all. Luckily for him winter break officially started in three days. All he had to get through was grueling studying-in which Logan made him feel stupid for not understanding the english language and Remus threatened to put spiders in his mouth if he fell asleep-and his last ever lead roll in a high school musical. He cared about one of these way more than the other.

“What do you mean they’re not coming?” Patton asked Roman worriedly. 

“Pat, they never do.” Roman sighed. “My parents have never liked the performing arts so they’ve never come before. But lately, they’ve both been so weird. Why would I ask them to come in the first place? They’d probably yell at me.”

“That’s bullshit.” Naomi scoffed. “Your parents need to get off their high horses.” 

“Agreed.” Patton said firmly, he was picking at his food absently. “Well anyway, I’m excited to come see you perform. I know you’ll do wonderful.”

“Thanks ‘dad’ but honestly you don’t have to, I know you’re just as busy as I am.” Roman waved him off. 

“Nonsense.” Patton smiled at him. “I’m coming to see you. Besides, I already promised Virge that I would take them to your play. No backing out now.”

“Wait why?” Roman asked. “Is Virgil even allowed to come?”

“Yes they’re allowed to come.” Patton smiled, looking down again. “What do you mean by ‘why’? Do you not want Virgil there?”

“No.” Roman sat back in his chair. “I just didn't think they’d care for it.”

“Well they don’t so you’re not wrong.” Patton dead-panned. “I just want Virge to see new things ya know? Logan is gonna be there too and the three of us kinda want to hang out anyway. Besides you and Virgil need to make friends with each other. This whole ‘I’m not talking to you for some reason that no one understands’ thing that’s going on between you two needs to stop. It’s getting old.”

“Okay well we’ve talked before.” Roman defended. 

“When?” Patton asked. 

“Well, that first night, I saved them from Remus and Janus I’ll have you know.” Roman told him. “And uhm, and that’s it.”

“Okay you’re clearly lying.” Naomi rolled her eyes. “But first, who the heck is Virgil?”

“Oh right!” Patton turned to Naomi. “Virgil is Thomas’ foster kid. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you.”

“It’s fine, you’ve been a bit ditsy lately.” Naomi teased. “I’ll just meet them when I come see Roman’s play.”

“Okay first of all, it’s a musical, second of all I’m not lying. That’s the only time Teen Angst and I have ever talked.” Roman grumbled. Then realized his mistake. 

“Oh okay so nicknames are happening here?” Naomi looked at him excitedly. “What’s going on? Is this a jealousy situation? Did they steal your boyfriend? Ooo is this an enemies to lovers thing?” 

“What no!” Roman shushed her. “Absolutely not.”

“You did give them a nickname.” Patton joined in with Naomi.

“I give everyone nicknames.”

“No not really.” Naomi said back. “Just tell me what’s up. What happened between you two?”

“Okay, it was really nothing.” Roman tried to get them to drop it. “I mean it.”

“Oh come on!” Naomi sighed. “Just let me be the side friend in your gay Hallmark movie Roman!”

“Shh!” The librarian gave them all a stern look.

“Sorry.” Patton apologized before flicking Naomi’s shoulder and getting a little laugh from her. 

Roman smiled at the two, going back to his sandwich before looking up and seeing Logan headed for them.

“Hey Lo.” Rmoan greeted. 

Patton and Naomi turned around to see him, both offering their own greetings. 

“Hello.” Logan replied. “I can’t eat here today. I have to go talk to Mrs. Willias.”

“Did you make someone cry again?” Patton asked, there was a tone to his voice that Roman didn’t recognize, but was certainly intrigued by. 

“No, in fact I didn’t and I regret telling you about that.” Logan told him. Roman expected there to be a bit of an edge to his voice, but no. Sure Logan had always been softer toward Patton but this, the way he scrunched his nose, the way he smiled, the way he peered at Patton, it was so different. “It’s about midterms.”

“Ugh.” Naomi groaned. “Her classes are so ridiculous, she spends so much time talking to her favorites we never get anything done. I’m so not ready for her exam.”

“And her study guides are ridiculous. They’re all unorganized and the questions don’t even make sense sometimes.” Logan nodded. 

“Right! I mean thank god she’s not an english teacher.” Naomi said. “Good luck getting anything useful out of her.”

“Thanks, I might honestly need it.” Logan mumbled. 

“Make sure you eat something for lunch.” Patton reminded. “I can’t have you going hungry during sixth hour. I kinda rely on you for my science grade.”

“At this point who doesn’t.” There Logan went again with a confidence that Roman was entirely unfamiliar with. 

“The day I meet someone smart enough to not need your help I’ll be sure to let you know.” Patton told him. 

“I doubt you need me to help you Patton.” Logan said kindly. “You could pass science without me.”

“Why would I want to do anything without you?” 

Okay now Roman was a little freaked out. He apparently wasn’t alone based on Naomi’s expression of surprise. Logan said a quick goodbye to all of them-his eyes lingered on Patton so luckily some things hadn’t changed-and was gone. 

“What the hell was that?” Naomi asked as quietly as soon as Logan was out of ear shot.

“What was what?” Patton asked genuinely. 

“The weird complimenty flirty teasing whatever thing you two just did.” Roman clarified. “Logan’s never that confident and you’re never so forward. At least not when other people are around.”

“Yeah.” Naomi agreed. 

“I-” Patton stopped, he was clearly thinking hard about what he could say. “Logan hasn’t said anything?”

“About what?” Roman asked. 

“Wait are you two dating?” Naomi asked, a little laughter in her eyes. But when Patton hesitated to respond both Roman and Naomi looked at him quizzically. 

“. . . No.” Patton finally said. Something about his posture shifted. Roman wasn’t entirely sure what he was thinking but now Roman was a little paranoid about it. 

“You’re not dating?”

“No we’re not.” Patton stated. “Why? Did it seem like we were?” 

“Yes.” Naomi and Roman told him. 

“Oh my god that’s so embarrassing.” Patton laughed nervously. “Do you think he noticed?”

“Noticed that you were weirdly flirting with him?” Naomi asked. “I mean probably.”

“Well he is Logan, he’s pretty clueless when it comes to that stuff.” Roman muttered. 

“Right right.” Naomi nodded. 

“But honestly, I think he did, the way he was looking at you, it kinda made it seem like he knew.” Roman said. Sure he wasn’t totally convinced but he wanted to go along with whatever was happening. Even if he was royally confused. 

“Oh gosh.” Patton put his hands to his cheeks and looked down. 

“Wait, were you flirting with him?” Naomi asked. 

Patton stayed quiet again. 

“Oh my god Patton!” Naomi squealed, ignoring the angry ‘shh’ from the librarian. “Since when do you flirt?”

“I-I usually don’t.” Patton said softly. “I just didn’t seem to be getting anywhere otherwise. I figure flirting is the next best thing.”

“Whoa whoa, you’re into Logan?” Roman stopped. 

“I mean yeah.” Patton nodded. “I have been for a while.”

“Well I’m his best friend. Why didn’t you tell me? I can tell him you like him!” Roman offered. 

“N-no I want it to come from me.” Patton said shyly. “It’s not the same if it comes from you.”

“Pat.” Roman groaned. “C’mon you gotta know that he’s been crushing on you since we were freshmen right! Just ask him out.”

“Roman I honestly don’t think that’s true. Come on, if he had a crush on me I think I would know.” Patton laughed him off. Roman wanted to scream but he figured that might not get him anywhere. And the expression that Patton was giving him told him it was hopeless to argue right now. 

“Just walk up to him, tell him where, tell him when, and don’t screw him on the first date.” Naomi said simply. “That’s what I do.”

“And how has that worked out for you?” Patton asked cheekily. 

“I’m single.” Naomi sighed. 

“Yeah you’re single.” Patton reaffirmed. “I just don’t know what to do. Besides, I don’t want him to date me right now anyway.”

“What?” Roman asked, confused. 

“Why?” Naomi looked at him, almost offended. “He’s hot.”

“Well I know that Naomi.” Patton hissed. “I just-I dunno it’s stupid. But I mean, I just got out of the hospital a while ago, and we’ve been hanging out a lot since. I just don’t want this to be like, charity work or something.”

“Patton I can guarantee that Logan has never and will never think of you that way.” Roman said exasperatedly. 

Patton looked back down at his food. There was something unreadable in his face that Roman wanted to ask about, but the bell rang. And like that the three were going their separate ways. Roman’s sandwich finished, but his stomach felt as empty as ever. Classes like always were a bore and Roman did anything but pay attention in them. Sure that wasn’t smart, but being smart wasn’t Roman’s thing. He could let Logan have that. Finally the bell after fifth hour rang and Roman began making his way to science. As he was approaching the science wing however he noticed Logan and Patton stood beside Logan’s locker having a conversation that they both appeared to find very entertaining.

Roman was going to try and sneak by them to eavesdrop-he wasn’t proud of his choices but this was for love so he figured it could slide-but Patton saw him. 

“Hey Roman!” Patton said a little louder than he had to. 

Logan turned, dropping his once amused expression. 

“Hey guys.” Roman replied. 

“Sorry but uh I wanna get to science early so I’ll see you two in a bit.” Patton waved them off and practically raced away from them, disappearing into the crowd. 

Logan didn’t say anything. Just closed his locker and turned to Roman expectantly. 

“What were you two talking about?” Roman asked, all the teasing he could possibly muster flooded his voice. 

“Science. Logan sighed. “Patton apparently wasn’t lying earlier when he said I was keeping his grade up.” 

“Speaking of which!” Roman said excitedly, happy for the segue. He and Logan started making their way to science. 

“Do you need help with science too?” Logan asked, annoyed. 

“No, I’m perfectly fine with my B I’ll have you know.” Roman said. “I mean, speaking of conversations that happened earlier I had an interesting one with Patton. Right after you left in fact.”

“Hmm?” Logan asked. He had always tried to be so collected when they talked about Patton but Roman could see the little shine in his eyes. 

“Well, as it turns out,” Roman knew he probably shouldn’t be saying this, but if Patton wasn’t gonna ask Logan out, then he had to get Logan to do it first. “Patton has been hiding a little secret about his feelings for you.”

“Roman I’ve never been one for this ‘beating around the bush’ thing you do.” Logan said.

“Okay okay, Patton said he’s been flirting with you and he likes you and I think you need to ask him out.” Roman told his friend excitedly. 

Logan didn’t say anything. Just kept walking.

“Roman you’ve never been one to make jokes like this, so I don’t entirely know why you’re starting now but I don’t appreciate it.” Logan said, no emotion in his voice whatsoever. 

“What?” Roman looked at him startled. “Logan I’m not joking.”

“Just stop Roman.” Logan shut it down. “Really I don’t care for this.”

“Lo for real he said-”

“Roman.” Logan warned. 

Roman had never wanted to slam his head against a wall more. Sure he had always dreamed of living in a Disney Original teen drama but now that he apparently was he found it rather agonizing. They arrived in class and sat down without saying anything more. Roman took his phone out and started aggressively texting Janus and Remus. 

To: Janice, Me but Green and on Crack

Me: ghkldfskadlfjasdlfjasld  
guys holy shit something went down  
with pat and lo

Janice: what?

Me but Green and on Crack: fr wat!?

Janice: hang on lemme add Virge

Janice added ***-***-****

Janice: ok go on

***-***-****: what’s going on?

Me: stuff went down with pat and lo today

Basically they flirted with each other during   
lunch and then pat said that he likes lo but   
won’t ask him out for totally legit reasons   
then i told lo that pat liked him and lo   
said that i was lying and told me to   
basically shut up

Me but Green and on Crack: oml 

those 2 -_-  
they need 2 fuk   
its getting old

Janice: seriously wth 

***-***-****: wait those two aren’t dating??

Me: no

Me but Green and on Crack: not yet ;)

Janice: you think they’re dating

***-***-****: well yeah

They act like they are

Me: they’ve been like that I guess

“Phones down assholes.” Ms. Ryans said. “Y’all aren’t sneaky. You’re lucky I don’t call you out.”

Roman shoved his phone away and looked forward. The inkling of an idea was starting to form but he didn’t know quite what it was yet. 

. . . 

“God dammit Lenny!!” Naomi shouted beside Roman. “I don’t have time to do my own makeup, when I asked you to do mine for me I didn’t ask you to give me a cat eye on the left and freaking eagle on the right!!”

“It was a mistake Naomi chill out!” His annoyed voice yelled back.

“No Lenny you’re a mistake! I can’t afford to chill out!! I’m co-directing a musical and have to be on stage because someone decided to get pregnant to get out of playing Lisa!!” Naomi said no no one in particular. 

“I don’t think Sofie got pregnant just to get out of playing Lisa.” Donnie said as they walked by.

“I wouldn’t put it past her.” Naomi said to Roman. 

“Let’s just hope she has a girl. God knows if she and Carter are the ones raising it they’re gonna get a serial killer for a son.” Roman mumbled, reapplying his lipstick.

Naomi laughed at his joke. They only had about half an hour left before they needed to get on stage and sing for their final show.

“Roman!” 

Roman whipped around, looking for who called him. “Shyanne what is it?”

“Patton’s wondering if he can see you real quick.” 

“Oh yeah! Thanks!” Roman put down the lipstick and started heading out of the costume room. “Naomi you coming?”

“Nope! I told Pat not to come see me. I got shit to do.” She told him. 

“Right.” Roman nodded. 

“Hey Ro, Shyanne pulled him aside. “Who’s the hot person that Pat’s with?”

“Anne I would hardly describe Logan as-”

“I know who Logan is. Cute but not my type.” Shyanne stopped him. “This one though, I’ve never seen before. And can I just say if you’ve been keeping them from me then I hate and respect you for it.” 

“O-okay.” Roman said, continuing to the door. “What on Earth?”

Roman walked out to see Patton standing there bouncing on his heels with anticipation while Virgil stood next to him, holding his hand and looking at something on his phone. Okay so I guess not on Earth, Roman joked with himself.

“Ro!” Patton pointed to him happily, startling Virgil out of a stupor. “Oh I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see you!”

“Thanks Pat!” Roman replied, giving him a quick hug. “Thanks for coming honestly, I hope we don’t disappoint.”

“You could never!” Patton said, he pulled Roman in to whisper to him. “Virge may not seem it, but he’s very excited to watch tonight. It’s just that there’s a lot of people around so he’s a bit overwhelmed right now. We just wanted to see you before we step out for some air.”

“Ah.” Roman nodded. 

“Roman! Where in the hell-” Naomi ran to him angrily. “Oh Pat hey-uh.” She stopped, then something shifted drastically. Roman watched as she assessed Virgil, assessed herself, and then decided to continue. “Hi, I’m Naomi.” 

“Virgil.” 

“So you’re the famous Virgil I’ve heard so much about.” Naomi laughed a little. If Roman didn’t know better he’d say she was trying to give her voice a bit of elegance. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I have to say Janus wasn’t kidding when he said you were quite the sight for sore eyes.”

Patton’s expression changed just as fast as Naomi’s had. He immediately shifted himself protectively in front of Virgil and smiled at Naomi, but there was harm in his eyes that scared even Roman. 

“Thanks.” Virgil said, unfazed. 

Roman saw as Naomi gave Patton a little pout before backing off. 

“Look Roman, Chloe can’t find her eyeshadow palette and she’s convinced you had it last. Now either give it up or go help her find it cause I have other things to do.” Naomi said, she turned on her heel and began to walk away, but not before giving Virgil a little wink. To which Patton gave her another hard look. 

“I better go handle that.” Roman said, hoping not to catch any of that rage from Patton. 

“Okay!” Patton gave him a cheerful smile. “Now go have fun okay! We’ll see you after the show.”

“You got it.” Roman gave the two a nod before rushing off. 

“Good luck Red.” Roman heard Virgil say after him. 

“Thanks.” Roman mumbled. 

Roman quickly helped Chloe find her missing palette and the rest of the night went on as they always have for the years before. He finishes getting himself ready, the group gathers in the choir room to warm up and start bawling, effectively ruining their makeup. Redo everything. Drink some tea. And then get out there to the wings of the stage, awaiting his cue to go on. The shining spot light making his skin glimmer and his eyes glow, the faces in the audience hard to see, but no matter. He knew their eyes were on him. He just hoped they were getting more out of this than he was. 

. . . 

From: Pops

I really shouldn’t send you this

Me: send what?

Pops: this could make me lose a   
very important bet so it better be   
worth it.

Me: ghisnfslkfns ?? 

It was a video. Before Roman clicked on it he saw that it was a video of the play. He remembered telling Patton it was okay to film, so he could use clips of it for an upcoming YouTube video. He clicked on it, a little confused. He watched it, the show went on like how Roman remembered. Poppy played Sophie beautifully, Naomi and Lillian played Sophie’s bridesmaids with vivacity, and Daniel and Camden joined him as the lead men in the musical and all three of them performed wonderfully. But when Roman got to sing his solo song the camera panned over. Roman was a little confused as to why he was no longer watching himself sing, but when Patton zoomed in on Virgil’s slightly obscured face he knew why. 

Virgil was staring up at Roman on the stage, his eyes glittering like a damn anime character and pure awe etched on his face. He looked mesmerized and Roman couldn’t tell what was making his heart beat so fast. I did that? I made him so . . . so . . . starstruck? He thought. Huh. Roman wouldn’t admit it but he rewinded the video and rewatched Virgil’s face what felt like a million times. 

As his mind drifted off into sleep his thoughts swirled with Patton and Logan and Virgil. He tried to think of all the things he knew about Virgil. 

Lets see: being sarcastic, the IT movies, Patton, being mean to me, Mamma Mia? Maybe?, Fire?, Janus, Remus, fanfiction apparently . . . wait.

Roman sat upright, he searched his bed and finally found his phone buried under his copious amount of blankets. 

“Renette, hi it’s Roman.” He said to the woman he’d called. 

“I know who you are Roman, why are you calling me?” Renette asked, her voice rather annoyed. “It’s like one.”

“I need the number to the hotel we’re staying in in New York and the person who helped book our rooms.” Roman said hurriedly. 

Renette paused. “Yeah okay.” She gave in without much protest. 

The call ended and Roman waited, just a few moments later he was texted all he had asked for and he couldn’t be more ready to start messing with his best friends’ love lives.


	31. Bev

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The road-trip to NYC incites some interesting conversations and realizations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Virgil centric story-line, road trip babeyyyy, they talk about fun things y’all, Virgil is pretty
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, food, McDonald’s, a dramatic reading of spicy fanfiction(not really), I don’t think I missed anything but if I did please yell at me

Virgil was buzzing. He was completely unsure as to how he would describe it but he just felt like his brain was ‘brrrrrring’ inside his skull. Currently he sat in the back of a rented out van next to Patton who was also radiating excited energy. Logan in front of the two was patiently listening to a podcast and no doubt judging the two. Janus turned down what Virgil assumed was Roman’a and Remus’ subdivision and parked in front of the largest house on the block. He then pulled out his phone and typed away. Soon the twins were stumbling out of their house with precarious amounts of luggage and a woman trailing behind them.

She was tall and blonde and reminded Virgil of the description of Bill’s mom from the IT book. Her expression was content, but something about the way her lips were set and her eyebrows arched made Virgil’s body tic uncomfortably. Remus and Roman’s expressions of pure joy however settled the nerves inside the car.

Logan had put his phone down and he and Janus shared similar looks as they looked at Mrs. Reeves. Patton however showed the twins nothing but a happy smile.

Janus got out of the car and started helping the twins put their bags in the trunk before shutting it.

“Don’t do anything that could get you on the news.” She told her sons. “Unless it’s good.”

Roman grumbled but didn’t say anything else.

“Yeah no promises.” Remus rolled his eyes.

“Janus.” Mrs. Reeves said with contempt as Janus walked by her.

“Kathy.” Janus snarled back.

Remus got in the passenger seat and turned away from her. Roman doing the same, only he sat in the middle. Janus put the car in drive and pulled away, face starkly forward.

“I thought your mom’s name was Rita.” Patton commented.

“Oh it is.” Janus said back. “I just play a little game with her. See she looks at me like I’m dirty and disgusting, and I call her by a different white lady name so she knows she ain’t shit.”

Logan snorted. Actually snorted. The whole car looked at him, startled, and eventually everyone started laughing. Laughing heartily. Virgil didn’t quite know why they were all laughing, but he figured he should join in, at least to not be alone. After they all settled down Virgil put his headphones on. He really liked them too. Emile and Thomas had gotten him large noise cancelling headphones that sat just perfectly on his head.

Virgil didn’t know a lot of music. He knew how the music from his planet sounded, at least the little that the generals had been able to salvage for him. But Patton had apparently decided that he would peer pressure and lecture his friends until they all made playlists of music for Virgil. They were all into such different genres and artists, surely one of them would have music that Virgil would love. Logan’s was mostly ambiance and lofi. It was certainly calming. And it also included some podcasts that he thought Virgil might enjoy. Remus’ was strange to say the least. Very in your face. Very aggressive. Sometimes it could even be overwhelming. Janus had apparently decided to introduce Virgil to such tunes as cabaret and what he assumed was indie music. Patton had sent him a strange mix of bubblegum pop and songs from the 80s. Virgil had no idea what was in Roman’s playlist, he’d decided it was better not to open it.

Virgil figured he could start with Patton’s music. Listening to it more in the background than anything else.

. . .

“Hey Virge?”

Virgil was stirred from his fanfiction reading, noise cancelled stupor to Patton’s kind voice.

“Mhm?” He looked up.

“Hey, you want anything from McDonald’s?” Patton asked with a soft smile.

“I don’t know, what’s good?” Virgil shrugged.

“Uhh,” Patton’s eyebrows raised. “Well nothing’s actually good good, but well, it’s kinda a road trip tradition to eat fast food. And we need some lunch.”

“Okay, well what do they have exactly.”

“Uhm, burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches,” Patton listed. “Soda and stuff.”

“Don’t forget the 24-hour breakfast!” Remus said back.

“Right and breakfast sandwiches.” Patton chuckled.

“Hi, welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?” The rather exhausted sounding woman said from the speaker.

“Hi, can I get a number two with a sprite, a number five with a coke, an egg mcmuffin meal with uhm, a caramel macchiato, and a ten piece nugget meal with a coke.” Janus told her. “What does Virgil want?”

“What’s a happy meal?” Virgil asked after scanning the menu.

“I’m getting a happy meal.” Remus said.

“I-I’ll just get that.” Virgil said. “With the nuggets.”

“Okay, and two happy meals please, one with a burger and one with six nuggets.” Janus said.

“Alright and what drinks do you want for those happy meals?”

“Uhh, a chocolate milk and a coke.” Janus answered.

“Okay and would you like a girl toy or a boy toy?”

“Ma’am I’ve already got a boy toy.” Janus said without thinking.

“That’s nice sir but it doesn’t answer my question.” She replied.

“Yeah uh-” Janus looked away. “It doesn’t matter just put whatever toy.”

“Alright. Is that all?” She asked, as monotone as ever.

“Yup.”

“Okay, pull up to the next window to pay.” She said.

Janus rolled up his window and started to move the car again.

“Happy meals come with toys?” Virgil asked Patton.

“Yep!” Patton smiled cheerily.

Soon the food had been given to Janus and he’d pulled into a parking spot to distribute it. Virgil was almost giddy when Logan handed him his Happy Meal.

“Virge what’d you get?” Remus asked. “I got a Mickey in a spaceship!”

“Hmm,” Virgil pulled out the toy first. “Pat what is this?”

“That’s Minnie Mouse in a pirate ship.” Patton answered, taking a bite out of his chicken sandwich.

“I got Minnie Mouse in a pirate ship!” Virgil told Remus.

“Hell yeah.” Remus snickered.

. . .

One thing that Emile and Remy had introduced Virgil to was Tumblr. And in being friends with Remus Virgil was also introduced to the extremities of punk fashion that Remus was particularly fond of. As Virgil scrolled through his dashboard he kept seeing posts made by one of the designers who Remus had made him follow. Her work was impressive to say the least. Often she was her own model for the clothes she made, but she had a shop where she sold a few different items. When Virgil came across yet another post of hers, he decided he should ask Remus a question that had been bugging him for a bit.

“Hey Remus,” Virgil turned to the taller boy as he got back in the car after they’d made a stop at a gas station. “Why do a lot of gay people dress all crazy and dye their hair and stuff?”

“Hmm,” Remus stopped, looking back at Virgil. “Well, I guess, being queer here is-uhm-it kind of makes you an outcast. No matter how well you try to fit in, no matter how accepting the people around you are, you’re still not normal. You’re not like the other people around you and that can be really scary. But, the thing is once you’ve embraced who you are, once you’ve really accepted that you’re just not like other people, and you aren’t going to be and that’s okay, I think at that point a lot of queer people will think ‘if I’m already an outcast, why be a boring one?’. Ya know?”

“Yeah.” Virgil smiled a bit at that. “Is that why you dyed your hair like that?”

Remus looked up at his practically grey-white bangs. “Haha, no, actually I dyed my hair like this because of a deal Janus and I made.”

“What deal?”

“Well, you know how Janus has like patches of skin that are pale? Well that’s called vitiligo. And Janus has been covering his up for a while because of this bitch that goes to our school. Because he wanted to fit in. And see, the vitiligo that he has gives him this white streak in his hair. Janus has been dying that to his natural color but I told him that I was gonna dye my hair black so we could be matching, and he told me about his white hair, so instead, I dyed mine like this and now people know we basically belong to each other.” Remus stated.

“So that’s why Janus has those white roots.” Virgil realized. “You know that was really well said. I didn’t expect that from you.”

“Well when you don’t have a therapist to talk to about your issues for most of your life, that sorta means you start talking to yourself.” Remus shrugged. “Also sometimes people just like fun colors and there’s really nothing to it. You wanna dye your hair then?”

“Maybe.” Virgil shrugged.

. . .

Before the later afternoon hours set in, the group rearranged themselves. Roman was driving now, and Janus sat beside him, helping direct him. Virgil and Remus sat beside each other in the middle, Both exchanging and reading fanfiction with each other. Patton and Logan sat in the back, awkwardly sitting beside each other. Though Virgil wasn’t entirely sure why they were so awkward, as far as Remus had told him, if you like someone you say it and you either date them or you don’t. There was nothing more to it. Sure fanfiction added lot’s of nuance, but Virgil supposed that was just for tension. Surely no one acted like that in real life.

Virgil was humming along to one of the songs on Janus’ playlist. He didn’t understand every lyric, but he did like how it sounded.

“Remus what in the world are you laughing about?!” Roman angrily asked. Virgil pressed the button on his headphones that turned off the noise cancellation, but didn’t pause the music.

“You’re gonna regret asking.” Janus 'tsked.

“Fanfiction about us.” Remus answered with a smirk.

“Ewww!” Roman gagged.

“Remus why?” Patton groaned.

“Thomas told us to never do that.” Logan reprimanded.

“What, it’s funny!” Remus laughed. “C’mon, you're not the least bit curious about our fandom?”

“No I’m really not.” Patton sighed.

“So you don’t want to hear about how you and Logan happen to be the most popular ship?” Remus teased.

“Okay I’m officially curious.” Virgil paused his music and turned to Remus. “You guys have a like, actual fandom?”

“Yeah and they’re low-key insane.” Remus snickered. “I love it.”

“How are they insane?” Logan asked. “Why am I engaging in this?”

“Well uhh, they’re like the horniest bitches ever!” Remus laughed. “I mean the art is something, but the fanfiction, wow!”

“Can we not talk about this?” Patton pleaded.

“Also there’s like two sides of that fandom that freaking hate each other!” Remus said. “And it’s all because of you baby.”

“Me?” Virgil asked. “Why me?”

“Well half of them think ‘Virgilius’ is hot as shit, and half of them hate people that think that because ya know,” Remus looked back down. “You’re kind of a war criminal.”

“Right.” Virgil nodded, turning away.

“Please stop Remus.” Patton ordered more than asked.

“Ugh fine.” Remus pouted. “Coward.”

It got really quiet, really fast.

“What did you just call me?” Patton asked menacingly.

“I called you. A. Coward.” Remus said back, like he was challenging Patton.

“I am not a coward!” Patton argued. Virgil really wasn’t sure why this had touched a nerve.

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” Remus smiled.

“Alright,” Patton summoned his bow. “Let’s go right now, pull the car over.”

“Whoa whoa.” Logan shook his hands.

“Okay maybe you guys should stop.” Janus tried.

“Should I actually pull over?” Roman looked to Janus for a second before turning back to the road. “I mean I would love to see Remus get destroyed by Patton.”

“Absolutely not, no fighting is going to happen.” Logan said firmly.

Patton let his bow dissipate with an annoyed look at Logan.

“Here Pat,” Remus tapped some things on his phone and turned around, offering it to Patton. “Read this, outloud. Prove you’re not a coward.”

“Fine.” Patton huffed, taking the phone. He scanned it quickly before rolling his eyes and starting. “ _Pink was finally able to catch his breath. Another battle won, another day saved. The other Power Rangers were saying their goodbyes, heading home to nurse their wounds. Though even through all this violence Pink could still only think of one thing. The promise that Blue had made him._ ”

“What promise?” Virgil asked.

“Shh shh, it’s a multi-chapter fic so it was covered earlier but that’s not important right now.” Virgil didn’t enjoy the look on Remus’ face.

“ _Blue walked over to Pink, the ranger couldn’t see his face but he knew Blue was filled with worry for him. Stupid shoulder, Pink thought as said appendage ached. ‘Are you okay?’ Blue asked, helping Pink up and to his car. ‘I am.’ Pink replied. The two were quiet after that. It was typical for the two to ride home with each other, but never enter each other’s apartment. Pink never knew why. The unspoken pact of it all only made this time stand out. Something about the set of Blue’s jaw as he took off his helmet, the softness in his eyes as he stared back at Pink, it was all different. Pink knew something was going to happen, he just wasn’t sure what part of that promise would be fulfilled._ ”

“Okay Remus I think you can stop before Patton is permanently scarred.” Janus said.

“ _As Blue pulled the car up in front of the apartment building Pink smiled. ‘Do you wanna come inside?’ He asked. ‘Sure.’ Blue said back. He turned off the car and the two started making their way upstairs. Pink talked absently about the fight and about how he could improve by the next battle. Blue listened intently, though he never liked how Pink downplayed his usefulness. It had become a habit for Pink to degrade himself and Blue wasn’t a fan. ‘Pink, please, you’re the best fighter on our team. You’re wonderful, don't ever say otherwise.’ Blue told him. Pink hesitated, Blue watched as his face flushed. He couldn’t help but think that reaction was a little much considering it was just a simple compliment. Then again perhaps_ -mmm no.” Patton stopped reading, taking a quick breath and looking away.

“Keep reading Patton.” Remus teased.

“ _Then again,_ ” Patton stalled swallowing before continuing on. “ _perhaps Pink liked the praise. Perhaps he wanted to hear it more. Blue decided then that he was more than happy to oblige. He just had to figure out how to get Pink to say it._ ”

“Wow.” Roman sighed.

“Oh boy.” Janus laughed.

Virgil turned around, Patton's face was thoroughly rad as he looked everywhere except at Logan. Said Blue Ranger had his hands raised up to his mouth and was shaking his head in disdain.

“C’mon Pat, I thought you weren’t a coward.” Remus said condescendingly. “Read on.”

Patton’s face hardened, he looked back at the phone. Virgil almost wanted to laugh. “ _They reached the Pink Ranger’s apartment, Pink unlocking it swiftly and welcoming his fellow Ranger inside. ‘Here, have some water.’ Pink offered, going over to the sink and filling two cups with the clear liquid. When he turned around he was surprised to see the Blue Ranger so close to him. Pink put the cups down, Blue’s face inching closer to his. He could hear Blue’s breathing, and prayed for his heartbeat to stop pounding in his ears. ‘Tell me to stop and I will.’ Blue whispered. Pink didn’t say anything. He knew what he_ -”

Virgil watched as Patton shut his mouth, eyes scanning the phone quickly before shoving it back to Remus. “I don’t have to prove anything to you!!” Patton yelped.

Remus cackled evilly. Taking the phone back and continued to let out howling laughs.

“Remus that was cruel.” Janus chided, though his amused smile said otherwise. “Send me that.” He whispered.

Remus nodded quickly and started tapping at his phone yet again.

“Patton?” Logan asked.

Virgil turned around to see Patton burying himself in his cardigan.

“Nope.” Patton said. “Just-just . . . no.”

. . .

It was night now. The gang had rearranged themselves yet again, Roman elected he would remain in the driver’s seat for a while since Patton and Janus needed sleep, and Logan and Remus weren’t allowed to even touch the dashboard. Virgil sat in the passenger seat, though they found they didn’t quite see why everyone fought over it so much. Patton and Janus were asleep behind them and Logan and Remus had both crashed hard in the back. Virgil had thought it would all be smooth driving considering the first few hours were great, but of course some dipshits on the highway did something stupid and now traffic was practically at a stand-still.

Virgil didn’t get much sleep though they’d have really liked to. The red lights in front of them and the yellow-white lights behind them really weren’t comforting though. And no matter how hard they tried, the leather of the seat just never allowed Virgil to get into a comfortable sleeping position. With nothing working in Virgil’s favor they opted to just stay awake until exhaustion completely overtook them. Sadly their headphones had died and were being charged, but that meant they couldn’t listen to the music they’d prepared, so they were left with the radio stations that Roman flipped through impatiently and the incessant drumming of Roman’s fingers on the wheel.

That is until they heard a pounding sound beside them and looked up from their phone, confused. In the car on Virgil’s right a girl was apparently trying to get their attention. She must have noticed Virgil was looking back at her because she got this super wide grin on her face. The girl started pointing at them and then she flapped her hand forward limply before shrugging. She did it again, only making a question mark in the air this time. Virgil had no idea what in the world she was asking, but figured they should indulge her.

“Hey Red?” Virgil turned to Roman. They didn’t really want to ask him but he was the only one who was awake. “What does this mean?” They flopped their hand forward like the girl had.

“Uh,” Roman watched, he didn’t seem all too happy about having to talk to Virgil. “That usually means that someone is gay.”

“How?” Virgil asked. “Nevermind, whatever.”

Virgil turned back to the girl and nodded fervently before flopping their hand forward and giving a thumbs up. She smiled even wider and gave a little triumphant fist pump before putting up one finger-Virgil assumed from previous interactions with Logan that this meant ‘wait’-and turned to her friend. Soon she held up a sign that asked ‘ _Do you listen to Girl In Red?_ ’. Virgil sighed, they’d have to ask Roman about this one too.

“What’s a ‘girl in red’? And how do you listen to her?” Virgil asked, refusing to look Roman in the eye.

“Uhh she’s like a lesbian song writer and singer.” Roman said. “Usually if someone’s asking if you listen to Girl In Red they’re asking if you’re a lesbian.”

“Oh.” Virgil thought a bit. They gave the girl in the car a waiting finger. “So what’s the genderfluid equivalent to Girl in Red?”

“Huh.” Roman pulled his lips into a thin grimace. “I mean I’m not sure but I know the band Mother Mother is like a nonbinary thing.”

Virgil nodded before turning around and grabbing Remus’ drawing notebook. They mentally apologized to Remus before tearing a page out and grabbing a sharpie from Remus’ pouch of utensils. They wrote in large letters ‘ _No, Mother Mother_ ’. They knew their handwriting wasn’t anything good, considering they almost never wrote anything in english, but she apparently got the memo when she gave Virgil a nod. The girl stalled for a second to talk to her friend before pointing to Virgil again with a questioning look. Then a song started playing loudly from the car.

“Hey Red?”

Roman mumbled something under his breath before sighing. “Yea?”

“What’s this song mean?” Virgil hummed the part of the song that the girl had played for them.

“That’s Everybody Talks. It’s like some pansexual anthem or something. You know, what pansexual is right?”

“Yes.” Virgil said sharply.

They turned to the girl again and shrugged a little before nodding. She pumped her fist again before yelling something at her friend who laughed and handed her another piece of paper.

_‘My number: ***-***-**** text me! ;) <3’_

Virgil’s eyes widened. _A new friend_ , they thought happily. Virgil looked down at their phone and started pressing buttons before finally remembering how to put in the phone number.

**Me:**   
**hi I’m Virgil**

  
**From: ***-***-****:**   
**Sup Virgil. Cute name. I’m Alice.**

. . .

“Hey Pat, what are you doing?” Virgil asked.

Patton and Janus had woken up and Janus got back into the driver’s seat for a little while before Patton would finish their trip. Virgil sat behind Patton and had been watching him type on his phone faster than Virgil could even comprehend for the past twenty minutes. Finally deciding to ask about it once they crossed the New York border.

“Oh, I’m just doing some diary keeping.” Patton answered.

“But, I thought you wrote in a diary.” Virgil mumbled.

“Well sure, traditionally I guess. But I don’t really have the time or the handwriting to keep a paper diary.” Patton joked. “So I just use this note taking app to write everything down.”

“Huh.” Virgil nodded.

“Do you want to try?” Patton asked excitedly.

“What?”

“Keeping a diary can be really fun! And also therapeutic. I started keeping a diary because my therapist when I was ten recommended it. I still do it now because it makes me feel good about the day. Even if my day didn’t go so well.” Patton told Virgil. “You can join me.”

“I don’t know.” Virgil shrugged. “Diaries don’t really seem like my thing.”

“Hmm.” Patton got a look on his face. “Oh! You liked reading fanfiction right? Have you ever wanted to read a specific fanfiction. Like you have a concept in your head and you want to read about the characters doing it. And you want it to be multiple chapters or just one chapter and you want it to have good grammar?”

“Yeah.” Virgil admitted.

“Well, have you ever thought about writing it?” Patton asked. “You can write it yourself! And you can post it online so others can read it too! You want it to happen, why not make it happen yourself.”

“I don’t know Pat,” Virgil said. “I mean that sounds hard.”

“Sure it can be.” Patton nodded. “But just, try! You never know if you don’t try. You might really like it. Plus this means you don’t have to wait around for the chance to read exactly what you want, you can make it and then re-read it as many times as you want. You can improve on it and more. And you don’t even have to write a story about characters already made! You can make your own world! You can make your own story with your own characters.”

“I don’t really have any of my own characters.” Virgil shrugged.

“Well, the notes app that I use has this feature where you can add a character creation template and just fill out all these things about a character to get you started and keep you organized.” Patton said. “Here, I’ll add it to your phone.”

Virgil handed Patton the phone and let him do what he had to.

“Alright, so, press this to create a new note, and you can keep your notes in notebooks to keep everything together. It’s not the best app but it works okay.” Patton turned around showing Virgil the screen so they knew what to do. “So to get that character creation template you just go onto a note and click this here, and it brings up all the templates, and you can just go down to the creative writing section and click any of these. This one is where you can fill out a thing about a character, this one is where you can flesh out your plot for your story, and-and this one can give you a basic lay out of your story. Like title and genre and setting and stuff.”

“Uh-huh.” Virgil tried to keep up with Patton’s rambling explanations.

“Hey Pat, time to switch out maybe?” Janus asked. “We should be getting to the hotel at about three.”

“Got it.” Patton nodded. “Just pull off the highway at the next rest-stop and we’ll grab a little pick-me-up and switch.”

“Sounds great.” Janus tried to suppress a yawn.

“Just try it out okay.” Patton said to Virgil. “See what you can create. I’m sure it’ll be amazing.”

Virgil was handed the phone back as Janus pulled off of the highway. They looked at the note that Patton had made.

**Character creation template:**   
**Full name -**

Virgil stared at the screen for a second. What on Earth could they make a story about? They don’t have any clue what kind of story they want to tell. They have no idea what they could possibly create.

**Character creation template:**   
**Full name - Astro**

. . .

The stalling of the car was what woke Virgil up. They were honestly surprised to find that they were waking up at all, they supposed that exhaustion finally caught up to them. Virgil yawned and blinked the sleep away readjusting. Virgil felt something soft and in their arms. _Oh yeah_ , they smiled, feeling the purple felt. Not too fluffy, not too scratchy, _Bev_. Virgil’s stuffed animal that Remy had gotten them for Hanukkah was a purple thing called a dinosaur. Virgil had absolutely no idea what the hell a dinosaur was but if they were anything like their stuffed animal they figured they would make a great pet. Afterall, Virgil’s therapist said they should be on the lookout for any possible therapy pets.

Virgil had absolutely no idea why but the urge to bite down on Bev’s horn thing. So they did. Something about it was so unbelievably satisfying. Then Virgil looked up. The Rangers all had the same face as they stared at him. Even Roman! Virgil had no clue what kind of look they were all giving them, but it was well, kind of freaking Virgil out.

“Sorry!” Patton squeaked before turning around in his seat and getting out. The others all said something similar and hurried out of the van. Leaving Virgil alone in their confusion.

When Virgil gathered all their things and got out the others had practically unloaded everything already. It was dark and so incredibly cold. Virgil went over and grabbed the handle of their suitcase, ready to rush inside the warm looking hotel.

“So Thomas said we should just head inside and get checked in. Renette will come get us in the morning to talk to us about what exactly we’re gonna be doing.” Roman said.

“Sounds good to me.” Remus yawned.

“I’m so ready to sleep.” Janus said, shivering.

Virgil copied Janus’ shivering and held Bev a little closer to their body.

“Hey,” Logan got Virgil’s attention, he held out a blanket. “Here, you must be freezing.”

Virgil gave a smile, though the cold had already made the muscles in their face feel frozen.

“We should have told you to dress a little warmer. New York is really cold during this time.” Logan stated.

“Thanks.” Virgil let Logan wrap them in the blanket, their own hands being too preoccupied.

“Where’d you get the stuffed animal?” Logan asked, starting to walk with Virgil inside the hotel. Virgil hesitated just a bit to answer once he saw Patton’s absolutely love-struck stare at Logan. Virgil assumed it was love-struck. They didn’t know how else to describe it. It was that look that Patton got whenever he talked about Logan while they were up on the ship together, only this time it was like ten-fold.

“I got it from Remy for Hanukkah.” Virgil said. “He said it’s something called a dinosaur. I named her Bev. Hey, do you know where I can get a real life dinosaur?”

“A real life one?” Logan asked. “Uhh, sorry Virge but dinosaurs don’t really exist anymore. And if they did, they wouldn’t look like that. At least they most likely wouldn’t.”

“What?” Even to Virgil their voice sounded hurt.

“Yeah, they all existed millions of years ago.” Logan told them, though now he seemed a little hesitant to. “They’re extinct now.”

“Oh.” Virgil sighed.

“You know, there’s a museum not far from here. Maybe we can go there. If we have time.” Logan started. “They have numerous exhibits about dinosaurs. You could learn all about them.”

“That sounds cool.” Virgil figured. They were finally inside the building, the rush of warmth caught them by surprise. “Also uhm, is Nightvale a real place?”

“No, sadly Nightvale isn’t a real town.” Logan laughed a bit, wiping the fog out of his glasses.

Virgl sighed. _So what was real?_

“C’mon, the check in desk is over here.” Logan gestured for Virgil to follow him. Virgil appreciated it. “Oh by the way, what pronouns should we use for you?”

“They/them.” Virgil said. This was becoming a bit of a habit for Logan to ask and Virgil liked it. “I kinda wish there was a way for you guys to know without me telling you.”

Roman and the others were right behind them and Roman had elected himself to check them all in.

“Well, you can get pronoun pins.” Logan suggested. “Just little pins that have your pronouns on them and you can switch them out as you need. Or you can get bracelets that represent pronouns with colors. My sister’s friend Lev uses the color of their shoelaces to tell people what his pronouns are. Black for he/him and purple for she/her.”

“Huh.” Virgil thought about that.

“Hey Pepper.” Roman greeted the woman at the desk. Virgil listened in.

“Hello Mr. Reeves.”

“Please call me Roman. I don’t want to sound like my dad.” Roman sighed. “Anyway, were you able to uh-do what I asked?”

“I was.” She nodded. “Here are your keys to the three rooms.”

“Thank you so much Pepper I really appreciate it.” Roman said with a smile.

“Of course. And I’ve notified the rest of the rest of the staff that will be working during your stay.” Pepper told him.

“You’re seriously the best.” Roman told her. “Alright everyone, I got the keys.”

Roman joined the rest of the group and everyone gathered around.

“So this room is Patton and Logan’s,” Roman started, shoving two keys to Patton who took them in surprise.

“Whoa wait.” Logan stopped. “Pat and I are staying in the same room?”

“Yeah I thought you two would stay in the same room.” Patton said, pointing to Roman and Logan. “You are best friends.”

“Well yeah but we’ve had a million sleepovers and I’m sick of his snoring.” Roman waved it off.

“Okay well if that’s the case.” Patton sighed, “Then you’re staying in the same room as Remus.”

“What?!” Both the twins looked at Patton incredulously.

“I don’t snore.” Logan said under his breath.

“Well you and Virgil are weirdly mad at each other,” Patton explained. “And I don’t want Remus and Virgil alone in the same room. So Virgil and Janus will stay in the same room and you two will stay in the same room.”

“Absolutely not.” Roman argued.

“I’m not staying in the same room as this ass-wait why can’t Virgil and I bunk together?”

“Remus you’re a terrible influence.” Patton sighed.

“It’s true, you’ve tried to get Virgil to smoke weed like twice now.” Janus stated. “Even I think that would be a bad idea.”

Remus crossed his arms and pouted a bit.

“Well I guess you and I can stay in the same room,” Patton suggested. “And Logan and Virgil can stay in the same room.”

“No no, it’s fine. I’ll stay in the same room as Virgil.” Roman grunted.

Everyone looked surprised at this but no one said anything until Patton broke the silence.

“Alright then it’s settled then. Logan and I in one room, Roman and Virgil in another, and Remus and Janus in the last one.”

“I don’t want to be in the room next to Remus and Janus.” Logan raised his hand a bit and said.

“Why no-” Virgil stopped. “I don’t either!”

“Here,” Roman gave Janus and Remus their two keys. “Remus isn’t allowed to touch them.”

“Agreed.” Janus smiled up at his boyfriend.

Roman held on to his and Virgil’s room keys and the group all made their way to the elevators. Finally reaching their floor the group split off to go to their rooms. Virgil and Roman didn’t wait to get inside and dump their luggage wherever laying down in the two full sized beds. Virgil collapsed on the covers, not even wanting to move under what they knew would be warm blankets. It didn’t matter. All that did was the absolute relief of being able to lay down comfortably.

Sadly however, sleep didn’t come as quickly as Virgil wanted. They just laid their, shifting around over and over before sitting up, frustrated that nothing ever felt right enough to sleep like.

“Ugh.” Virgil grumbled sitting up once again.

“What’s wrong?” Roman asked groggily.

“Nothing.” Virgil sighed. Stop being stupid! They scolded themself.

Virgil got up from the bed. Bev tucked under their arm. They stared at the bed angrily for a few seconds before realizing how nice the carpeting felt. Virgil figured why not and grabbed one of the better feeling pillows. Wrapping up in the blanket that Logan had given them.

“Virgil,” Roman sounded annoyed. “Why are you on the floor?”

“F off.” Virgil answered. So they weren’t the most eloquent. Oh well. “Uh, hey Roman, what did you do anyway?”

“What are you talking about?” Roman asked, he sounded really annoyed now. That made Virgil a little smug.

“Well you really wanted Patton and Logan to get that room. And you were talking to that woman all secretive and stuff and she mentioned talking to the other staff people so.” Virgil tried to convey what they were thinking.

“Oh, haha yeah,” Virgil could hear Roman shift in the bed. “So, you know that ‘share a bed’ trope in fanfiction? I kinda did that to them.”

“Wha-” Virgil thought about that. “How?”

“Well, I just called the hotel and got on the phone with Renette’s contact here and asked her to make one of our rooms a single-bed and sent her pictures of Patton and Logan so that if they asked about switching the room to a double-bed the staff could tell them that there weren’t any.” Roman laughed.

“Oh dear gods.” Virgil snickered.

“I tipped her like fifty bucks for it too.”

“That’s a pretty big brained idea right there.” Virgil said. “Well-played.”

“Shut up.” Roman groaned. “Go to sleep.”

Virgil smiled. “No, I don’t think I will.”


	32. Blond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan takes Virgil and Patton to see the Natural History Museum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Logan centric story, I’ve never been to New York City but I did do a lot of research, DINOS, Logan&Virgil bonding time, fluff, lots of fluff y’all
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, food mentions, mention of monster energy

Logan had never woken up so comfortably before. Honestly he couldn’t think of any better way he could possibly wake up. Sure maybe being in his own comforting bed would be nice too, but frankly, this large puffy bed straight out of the movies was so nice. And Patton’s soft arms wrapped around his waist made all of this a million times better. No scratch that, a billion times better. Scratch that too actually, Logan couldn’t quantify how wonderful this felt. Patton’s hair smelled like strawberries and his little breaths were just the white noise he’d needed to fall asleep. 

There was a loud angry sort of sound that came from the dresser beside Patton and Logan figured their phones were buzzing. Patton stirred and opened his eyes slowly. Logan cursed those stupid phones. 

“Mmm, Lo, thasss probly Nettie.” Patton sighed into Logan’s neck. “C’mon we got a big day to-ay.”

“No it’s probably nothing.” Logan told him softly. 

“Mmmbut I heard our phones buzzz.” Patton said sleepily. 

“No I think you’re hearing things.” Logan said.

Patton laughed sweetly. “No-o-o. I’m not.”

“Yes you are.” Logan ran his hands through Patton’s hair once again. 

“You know I remember last time we slept in the same bed, you couldn’t wait to get up and around.” Patton snickered. 

“Not true.” Logan said. 

“Very much true!” Patton argued. 

“No, I just had to get home. Believe me I would have loved to stay asleep all day. ” Logan snuggled closer to Patton and smiled against his hair. “Which is what we should do today.”

Patton hummed happily. The two laid like that for a while more, Logan started falling in and out of sleep. Then suddenly that content warm body that was keeping Logan so comfortable left him. Logan opened his eyes and was a little embarrassed with himself when he whined at the loss. Patton was sitting up on the edge of the bed and checking his phone screen. He typed something before putting his phone down and standing, stretching a little before turning to Logan with a bright sweet-as-pie smile. 

“C’mon Love,” Patton cooed. “It’s time to get up. We’ve got breakfast and then we’re meeting Renette to talk about the day.”

“Nooooo.” Logan collapsed on his back in the bed. 

“Logan Montgomery get up and out of bed now.” Patton demanded, though frankly he was still smiling cheerily so it didn’t quite have the same effect that he might want. 

“No!” Logan turned on his side away from Patton, burying himself in the covers. 

Suddenly Logan felt something hit him on the side of his face. 

“What the-” Logan opened his eyes and grabbed the pillow that had hit him. “Patton did you just throw a pillow at me?”

“Mhm.” Patton smiled. 

Logan rolled over again and threw the pillow back at Patton hitting him in the arms that Patton had brought up to shield himself. Patton laughed. 

“C’mon just get up.” Patton urged, grabbing the pillow and holding it menacingly. 

“Don’t you dare.” Logan warned, pointing at Patton. 

“Then get up.”

“No.” 

“Then you deserve it.” Patton threw the pillow at Logan again, hitting him in the face as Logan was still too sleepy to react fast enough. 

“Patton.” Logan sighed. He grabbed the pillow to see Patton trying to hold in a laugh. 

Logan grabbed the pillow and watched as Patton grabbed another pillow just in time to block the one that Logan threw back at him. Patton laughed joyously once again and Logan sat up, taking Patton’s distraction as a good time to grab the pillow that he had used and threw it at Patton’s face. The pillow hit him and fell to reveal Patton’s utter surprise. 

“Rude.” Patton said, but there was no malice in his voice. 

“You hit me in the face first.” Logan argued. 

Patton didn’t say anything back, just threw a pillow at Logan once again. This time Logan was able to stop it before it hit him in the face. Logan wasted no time and rebounded the pillow, throwing it right back at Patton, taking advantage of his continuous giggles to reach over and grab Patton around the waist, pulling him forward and flipping the two of them around, trapping Patton under him. Patton practically squealed and Logan had to shush him. 

“It’s still morning.” Logan reminded with a grin. 

“Right right.” Patton whispered. 

“Besides, Roman and Virgil are right next door, we can’t let them get any ideas after all.” Logan said. 

Patton’s smile never wavered but Logan could tell he was thinking about something now. 

“What is it?” Logan asked. 

“Well, do you want to tell everyone?” Patton asked. “That-that we’re together. I mean messing with them was my idea and I didn’t really ask you. I should have. But, well we hadn’t told anyone yet and when Roman didn’t know I was surprised cause you know, I thought you would’ve told him. I wouldn’t have cared if you did! Really. I just, I mean I guess things got in the way. Important things were happening-not that this isn’t important!! It is! You are! I just-I want you to know that you say the word and I’ll tell everyone on Earth and not on Earth that we’re together. And I wouldn’t think twice about it. Cause like, I really really like you and I would get to tell people that you feel the-the same way! That out of everyone you chose me. And I still don’t know why or what goes through your mind but that I’m the luckiest, happiest person alive because of it.”

“You’re rambling again.” Logan said softly. 

“I guess I am.” Patton shrugged. 

“I love it when you ramble.I get to know all the unfiltered thoughts that go on in your head.” Logan put a hand on Patton’s cheek. “And Pat, believe me I’ve been dreaming of a day when I get to tell everyone I know that you and I are dating, but honestly, I think I still want to keep this between us.”

“Really?” Patton seemed surprised. 

“Sure.” Logan nodded. “Frankly, it’s a bit of payback for Roman’s incessant teasing all these years. Honestly, I want to see how long it takes for everyone to notice. How observant are they really?”

“Not very.” Patton laughed.

“Besides, knowing Roman this room thing he pulled isn’t going to be the only thing on his list of ways to get us together.” Logan kissed Patton with a smile. “And frankly, running around New York City with my secret rich handsome celebrity boyfriend? It’s like my own personal Hallmark movie.” 

“Haha a bad one.” Patton laughed. “But one that we would watch anyway.”

“I have no doubt about it.” Logan kissed Patton again. 

“I win.” Patton said when they pulled apart. 

“You win?” Logan asked. 

“Mhm. I won.” Patton told him. 

“How have you won?”

Patton wrapped his arms around Logan’s waist and before he knew what was happening Patton had flipped them over once again and given Logan a passionate kiss that had him chasing Patton when he pulled away. 

“You’re awake.” Patton got off of Logan and started heading to the bathroom. “I win.”

Logan stared up at the ceiling, his bright red blush turning his ears red. For the first time, in a really, really long time, Logan’s mind was completely empty. 

When Patton and Logan were both fully dressed and ready for the day they left their room, expecting to be the last two down in the lobby. They were surprised however when they found that Roman and Virgil were actually the ones holding up the group. Thomas was walking toward the group carrying a couple muffins, Emile, Remy, and Remy’s impressively obedient dog stood around talking, and Remus and Janus were dancing? Logan was really confused about what they were doing. 

“I’m sorry how the hell can she be antisemetic and have gone through a bey-blade phase!” Remy snapped. “Like bitch, do you not know-”

“Hi Pat, hi Logan!” Emile stopped his friend before going on. 

“Morning Emile.” Patton gave him a little hug. 

“Greetings.” Logan gave him a content smile.

“Where’s Renette?” He asked. 

“She went to get another coffee.” Emile said. 

Thomas had joined the four and handed Emile and Remy two of the three muffins he’d bought.

“Another coffee?”

“She’s really stressed out today.” Remy sighed. “God knows why.”

“Hmm.” Patton nodded. 

“What are those two doing?” Logan asked Patton as he pointed over to Remus and Janus. 

“I uh don’t really know.” Patton shrugged. 

“Oh, they’re learning TikTok dances.” Emile said, taking a bite of the muffin. 

“Why?” Logan raised an eyebrow. 

“They’re bored.” Thomas said. “What took you two so long anyway. I expected you both to be right on time. Patton I can understand, he’s never really on time, but Logan, you’re usually very punctual.”

“Gee thanks.” Patton crossed his arms and jabbed a thumb at Logan. “I’ll have you know that this one didn’t want to get up.”

“You were still late.” Remy snickered. 

“Not as late as those two.” Emile pointed behind Patton and Logan to Roman and Virgil as they emerged from the elevator. They both looked unbelievably annoyed.

“-it wasn’t that big of a deal!” 

“Oh my gods shut up, you are so annoying.” Virgil grimaced, heading over to Patton and Logan quickly 

“Aww is the great prince not a morning person.” Roman said back snarkily. 

“No, I’m just not a you person.” Virgil scoffed. 

“Why are you such an angsty jerk?” 

Virgil didn’t give Roman a response other than rolling their eyes. 

“Don’t you roll your eyes at me Prince Zuko of the Bitch Nation!” Roman chased after Virgil. 

“Hey, stop it you two!” Patton scolded. 

“Patton you’ve got two options,” Virgil said with a menacing glare at Roman. “Either get him to shut the hell up or I fight him. And the fists are already up so frankly I’m partial to the latter.”

“No one is fighting anyone right now.” Patton tried to diffuse the two. “Roman go stand over there.”

“Why do I have to?” Roman asked. 

“Cause I said so.” 

Roman mumbled something but obliged and stood behind Emile and Remy. 

“What happened?” Logan asked the two of them. 

Neither cared to answer. Renette joined the group with an already half-drank coffee and a red face and dark circles under her eyes. 

“Oh dear lord finally, y’all decided to join us.” She sighed. “Where are the other two?”

“Right here!” Janus waved as he dragged his boyfriend over.

“Great.” Renette pulled out her phone and tapped a bit before looking up at them again. “Number one, if you’re all late like this again I’ll smack you back to Florida and make you crawl your way here. Number two we only have a few things on the schedule until the parade on Friday. I’ve already sent this to your emails but since your generation apparently hates email and never actually uses it as intended, I’ll send it again and you can save it to your phones some other way.”

“Thank you.” Patton nodded. 

“Today there’s nothing for you all to do until six tonight when you all must attend a dinner party to celebrate your accomplishments as Rangers. It is very formal so I will be picking your outfits and I want no arguing.” She sent a pointed look at Remus and Roman. “You will be required to wear your helmets the whole time as to protect your identity, so uhm, you won’t really get to eat during it. So just plan ahead I guess. Then we’ll turn in for the night.”

No one seemed particularly excited about this. 

“Virgil, Emile, and Remington will of course not be attending, so I’ve hired a friend to keep watch of them for the night.” Renette said dismissively. 

“Really? A babysitter?” Remy complained. 

“C’mon Virge is sixteen and we’re both fourteen.” Emile whined. 

“Almost fifteen.” Remy added. 

“Virgil is an alien, Remy you are blind, and Emile is an enabler.” Renette stated. “Yes you’re getting a babysitter. Tomorrow, after lunch we’ll be heading over to do a panel, just a simple Q&A with fans or whatever. It’s mainly to help boost your image. I’ll send an attachment of what exactly you’re allowed to say and not say during this. After that you’ve been invited to see a viewing of Hadestown, that you won’t have to worry about helmets or anything, we haven’t told anyone but the company that you all will even be attending. And it better stay that way. Then Thursday of course is New Year’s Eve, during that you have been invited to go on stage with some singer or whatever-I don’t remember okay give me a break. You’ll just make a tv appearance and wave at the camera and look all strong and then you’ll be let off to spend the rest of the night how you please. So long as you’re up and ready by 7:45 and on a float by the time it leaves at eight. Again I’ve hired a babysitter for the day for Virgil, Emile and Remy.”

The three groaned a little but didn’t say much else. Logan had watched as Renette’s statement slowly lit up everyone’s faces around the group. 

“So, until six tonight you all are free to roam New York City. Don’t get killed, don’t do hard drugs, and please dear god don’t be late tonight. Important people are going to be there. I don’t need you embarrassing me. Thomas this goes for you as well.” Renette snapped. 

“What have I done?” 

“1999. Thanksgiving parade.” She said. 

“That was a long time ago I was young-”

“2004. Silver Bells.” She smiled kindly but her eyes showed nothing but harm.

“Okay fair, but again-”

“2009. Presidential Inauguration.” She snapped. 

Thomas pursed his lips and looked away. 

“2016.” She looked incredulously at him. “The year 2016.”

“Your point has been made.” Thomas sighed. 

“Good.” She took a long sip of her coffee. “Now get out of my sight all of you. You might have a nice day off, but I’ve got loads of work to do and I don’t want to see your faces until it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Uh where is the fancy dinner exactly?” Logan asked. 

“None of your concern. You won’t be driving. There will be chauffeurs outside this building, waiting for you, at 5:30, be down here then and be dressed accordingly. The text should come through any second now with details on what I need from each of you tonight.” Renette told him. She turned and started walking toward the elevators. “Now go have fun. You’re in New York dammit.”

“We’re in New York.” Janus repeated. 

“We’re in New York!” Patton started bouncing up and down. 

Latte gave a yip at everyone’s excitement.

“There’s so much to do!” Emile turned to Remy. 

“And so little time to do it.” Roman sighed. 

Everyone started delving into conversations of how to spend the day. Emile and Remy seemed dead set on eating the most outrageous food they could find and were trying to convince Thomas to come with them, Roman was already talking about all the possibilities that come with walking on Broadway and seemed entirely distracted by the fact that they would be seeing Hadestown the next day, and Patton and Remus were talking so fast Logan had a difficult time keeping up. The dog’s tail wagged aggressively at all the chattering and he gave a few more yips for attention. 

“Logan.” Virgil got his attention. 

“Oh, yeah Virge?” Logan looked at them and was delighted to see that they appeared unbelievably excited. “Oh uh, pronouns?”

“She/they. So yesterday we were talking about dinosaurs and you said we could go see some or something.”

“Right. Well, again Dinosaurs are extinct-sorry-but the American Museum of Natural History has a lot of Dinosaur exhibits. They have fossils and replicas of dinosaurs and bones and lots of information on them. There’s also other exhibits about the Earth and other animals and such. I believe they have a planetarium as well. That’s where they put on shows about space. Though I guess you don’t really need that.” Logan listed. 

“Yeah yeah, can we go?!” Virgil asked excitedly.

“I suppose so.” Logan shrugged. “I’d be happy to go with you. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the Natural History Museum.”

“This is gonna be incredible!” Virgil exclaimed. 

“What is?” Patton asked. Logan now realized everyone was staring at them. Well, apart from Remy. 

“Virgil and I are gonna go to the Natural History Museum to learn about Dinosaurs.” Logan explained. 

“Oh my god boooooring!!” Remus groaned. “You’re in New York and all you wanna do is learn?!”

“Well you don’t have to come.” Logan defended.

“Yeah we can all split up.” Virgil said, noticeably less enthusiastic. 

“Thank god, a museum is the last place I wanna be right now.” Roman crossed his arms. 

“I really don’t like the idea of splitting up.” Thomas said. 

“Well too late, if those two are going to a museum, I’m not joining 'em.” Remus said. 

“Then it’s settled.” Patton said. “Virge, Logan, and myself will go to the Natural History Museum, you three can go do whatever you want, and Emile and Remy can go eat street food.” 

“Fine by me.” Janus smiled. 

“Yeah sounds like a plan.” Virgil shrugged. 

“Let’s get going then!” Patton smiled. “Here, I’ll call an Uber, you two think of a place to get something to eat.” 

“Okay.” Logan nodded. 

“Ooo!” Emile looked up from his phone. “Remy there’s a group of food trucks that’ll be in the park soon, we gotta be first in line!”

“Let’s get going.” Remy cheered a little and yanked on his dog’s leash. “C’mon latte we’re going to eat until we die.”

“Whooo hooooo!” Emile pumped his fists in the air and the two took off with Thomas in tow.

“Alright where are we going first?” Roman turned to his assigned group.

“You’re gonna regret not coming to the museum with us.” Logan told Roman as he and Virgil walked toward the elevators. “Pat I’m gonna go get my wallet!”

“And I’m going to go change really quick!” Virgil called too. 

Patton gave both of them a thumbs up and went back to his phone. Logan and Virgil headed up to their floor and went into their seperate rooms. Logan emerged with his wallet and various winter-appropriate coats and accessories for himself and Patton. He waited in the hallway for a few minutes before Virgil emerged in a completely different outfit from her previous t-shirt and jeans. This time wearing black tights under ripped pale blue jeans and a black turtleneck under a large purple button-up. Their large borrowed winter coat hung around her elbows and black leather gloves wrapped around her hands, silver studs jutting out at each of her first knuckles. It was honestly impressive. Logan wondered how they’d been able to put all of this on, including makeup, so quickly.

“Wow.” Was all Logan said.

“You said I needed a jacket.” Virgil said simply.

The two made their way back to the elevator.

“Don’t take this as an insult but, why exactly are you dressed like this. It’s only a museum.” Logan told them. “It’s not special.”

“I want all the dinosaurs to know I’m gay.” Virgil deadpanned.

“Huh.” Logan smiled a little. Makes sense.

“Also Patton said he was gonna try to take a video for YouTube in there and I figure I should make a good impression.” Virgil shrugged.

“When did Patton say that?” Logan asked, suddenly very aware of his bulky hand-me-downs.

“He just texted us.” Virgil heals up their phone to show the text. “You should really check your phone.”

Logan grumbled. 

“Whatever, you look fine. I’m sure everyone’s gonna love Patton’s little nerdy boyfriend.” Virgil gave Logan a little pat on his shoulder and went back to playing some mobile game. 

Logan sighed but didn’t say anything in return. He adjusted himself in the mirrored elevator walls. A turtleneck from cousin Liam, a blue fleece and denim jacket from some garage sale a year ago, and black tennis shoes. Logan really wasn’t going to stand out much to Patton’s viewers. Especially compared to Virgil. 

“What should we get for lunch?” Virgil asked. “I like chicken nuggets. Where can we get those?” 

“I don’t know. I’m sure there’s another McDonal’d close by, or maybe a different fast food place. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat fast food again. We should go somewhere a little healthier.” Logan said. He pulled out his phone and started checking for restaurants nearby. “So it looks like there’s a Japanese place not far from here, and a taco place we can walk to. And of course pizza places on every block.”

“I’m not entirely sure I know what a taco is, but that sounds interesting.” Virgil noted. 

“Virgil, I have to ask, how do you not know what chicken nuggets are, but have somehow read IT fanfiction?” Logan asked. 

“Oh, haha,” Virgil put her phone down. “Yeah so, when I was first sent down to, ya’ know, my mom would send me down after I’ve healed in order to stalk Thomas and you guys. But uh it was really annoying at first. No one on the ship knew the Black Ranger’s identity so I just ended up walking around all bored, not knowing what I was looking for. Then I discovered a public library with some computers so I started reading, then I watched people work computers so I started using those to look up my favorite books, and then found out about movies, and then found out about fanfiction by reading comments under pirated movies.”

Logan didn’t know what to say. 

“I mean I was lucky that the Generals didn’t rat me out on it too! They ended up actually stealing some stuff from Earth for me. Like books and snacks. Mostly stuff from gas stations though.” Virgil stated. “I basically just procrastinated a lot and ended up learning about very niche things. Most of Earth is boring anyway. After finding what I like, why look for more? No offense but your planet is like 80% shit.”

“That I can understand.” Logan nodded. “However, learning things has values other than entertainment.”

“Eh,” Virgil pulled their phone out again and started playing. The elevator stopped and the two stepped out. “I was trapped in hell for over sixteen years. I think I deserve entertainment.”

“Fair enough.” Logan chuckled. “Though, that kind of goes against your new fascination for dinosaurs.”

“Dinosaurs are entertaining.” Virgil gave Logan a sideways glance, but had kindness in their eyes. Something about that made Logan nostalgic for the first few weeks of friendship between himself and Roman. 

Logan looked up ahead. Patton stood by some lounging furniture talking to his phone camera and the others were no longer in sight. 

“Here they are!” Patton had noticed the two and was motioning them over. 

Logan nudged Virgil a bit who looked up from their phone and started speed-walking with Logan to Patton. 

“Everyone, welcome back our beloved Logan. You’re used to seeing him in the backgrounds of my QSA update videos, he doesn't typically like the spotlight, but I’d like to have him in more videos. Of course as long as he doesn’t mind.” Patton smiled cheerily at the camera and had thrown an arm around Logan’s neck to bring him in close. Patton’s comments made Logan’s insides shake a little bit. His silly crush was four years old, and yet Patton still had this innate ability to make Logan weak. 

Logan gave the camera a smile and said a small “Hi.” as Patton squished his face to Logan’s.

“And next to Logan here, is Virge-Oh! Pronouns?”

“She/they.” Virgil said, giving the camera a two-fingered salute.

“She’s basically my little sib at this point. Or my child. They’re new to the channel so everyone be your usual kind selves. I hope you all grow to love them as much as I do!” Patton finally released Logan and turned to the both of them, flipping the camera around at them. “You two come up with a lunch plan?”

“Tacos.” Logan told Patton. “There’s a place within walking distance.”

“Perfect!” Patton cheered. “Let’s get going, I told the uber not to show up for a while so we’d have lunch time and exploring time.”

Patton flipped the camera around again in time for it to catch Patton as he wrapped his arm with Logan. The three started off, following Logan’s lead to the restaurant. Logan was surprised when he felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to see that Virgil had grabbed Logan’s sleeve between his fingers and was blindly following him, face buried in her phone. Again Logan felt that rush of appreciation. He couldn’t help but wonder why Virgil had so quickly chosen to trust him. They hadn’t had as much interaction as Virgil had with Janus or Remus, and she certainly didn’t seem very trusting. She had no reason to be. So why Logan?

. . . 

The first step inside the museum was priceless. Logan remembered the time that he had spent there with his father when he was young-well he didn’t actually remember it, he just knew it happened and had an occasional fleeting recollection of it. The first steps inside revealed the highest ceilings and impressive architecture, white shiny marble surrounded the three and the other scattered guests. In the middle of the grand room stood a large elephant on its platform, surrounded by all kinds of information and pamphlets. 

“So they said we can film in here which was very nice of them,” Patton smiled. “I got us three tickets for general admittance and one of the special exhibits since we’re not gonna have time to see everything.” 

“Logan, what’s that?” Virgil asked him. 

Logan led Virgil over to the elephant. “This is a recreation of an african elephant. You can read about everything here on these.” He pointed to the information plaque. “Everything here has one.”

Virgil’s face was one of pure awe before she looked down at the plaque and scrunched her nose in concentration. 

“Where should we go next?” Patton asked. “The Ocean Hall is over here, and there’s dinosaurs over there. And we can also take the escalators up to see the other exhibits. I think they have one about humans too.”

“Let’s go to the ocean hall.” Virgil said, still reading. “I wanna save the dinos for last.”

“Fair enough.” Patton giggled. 

When Virgil was done reading everything she wanted to, she grabbed Logan’s sleeve and started dragging him along to the Ocean Hall that Patton had pointed out before. Logan looked back to see Patton smiling wider than ever as he filmed the two. They walked through the first entryway to see a little greeting, some inspirational quotes from oceanographers and asking for donations to the museum’s oceanlife relief fund. 

“Your oceans are in danger?” Virgil asked. “How the hell do you put giant bodies of water in danger?”

“Greed.” Logan stated. 

“Humans really need to get their shit togeth-oh my gods what is that?!” They raced over to the left and stared wide-eyes at the giant skeletal jaw. 

“That,” Logan looked down at the plaque, “Is the jaw of a great white shark.”

“Whoa.” Virgil smiled. “That thing lives in your oceans?”

“A lot of them do.” Logan nodded. 

Virgil read all the information they could before turned toward Patton and ushering him over to point out something she’d read. 

“What’s over this way?” Virgil decided to answer her own question and trotted over to a balcony that stretched across to another exhibit. Under the balcony rows of tables and chairs were spread out between restaurants. And up hanging above, staring back at Virgil, a life-size recreation of a great white shark barred its razor sharp teeth. 

“That is what a whole great white shark would look like.” Logan said. 

“Wow.” Virgil gawked. “Okay c’mon I wanna see what other crazy dangerous stuff you’ve got living the oceans you’re killing.”

Virgil grabbed Logan’s sleeve again and started pulling him along, back to the ocean exhibit. Logan couldn’t help but feel a bit like a chaperone as Virgil and Patton bounced around from creature to creature, reading everything and taking pictures. Virgil surprisingly took to the camera and enjoyed talking to Patton and his viewers about stuff she thought was interesting. Logan meadered about, keeping an eye on the two while looking at other things he found interesting. 

“They’re called nubbins.” Virgil told the camera. “That’s such a strange word. Nubbins.”

Virgil and Patton proceeded to say ‘nubbins’ over and over until finally, they reached the end of the Ocean hall and were led by Logan across another balcony to the fossil hall. 

“Whaaaaaaa.” Virgil put her hands in her hair and stared as she pointed at the bones that formed a mastodon. “Is that another elephant?”

“No uh, it’s an American Mastodon. It’s sort of like the ancient elephant.” Logan shrugged and showed Virgil to the informational signs.

Once again Virgil bounced around the exhibit absorbing every bit of information and gawking at the fossils. Virgil would call Logan over at any point to give the definition of a scientific word or just to talk about something they found incredible. Patton hung back a bit on this one, and waited for there to be a little lull as Virgil read the information about a large set of alligator bones. He pulled Logan back and put down his camera. 

“I love that you and Virge are getting close.” Patton told him. “You’re a wonderful friend.”

“I don’t know why she trusts me so much, but I won’t complain.” Logan smiled. 

“I haven’t seen them so excited to talk to someone. You’ve really made a connection with her.” Patton put his head gently on Logan’s shoulder. “I just don’t know how to tell you how happy that makes me.”

Logan pressed his lips to the top of Patton’s hair. 

“What in the ever loving shit is that?!” 

Logan and Patton both looked around to find Virgil was nowhere to be seen. Quickly panicked the two tried to follow their voice. 

“Logan over here!” Patton called from the other end of the exhibit where he had sprinted. Logan hurried over there to find Virgil staring with a horrified expression at what appeared to be a giant, prehistoric centipede creature. 

“Please please please tell me this isn’t real anymore!” Virgil begged Patton. 

“I-I don’t believe it is.” Patton tried to calm them. “I mean maybe in Australia but you’re not gonna find a living one here.”

“Never take me to Australia if there’s even a chance that this hell-spawn could be there!”

“O-okay. You got it.” Patton chuckled. 

Logan felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his phone. Roman Reeves✨. Logan accepted the call. 

“Logan!!” Roman shouted. “Logan where are you?!”

“Stop yelling Roman.” Logan told him. “Virgil, Patton, and I are at the Natural History Museum.”

“How much does it cost to get in the museum?!” Roman asked, he sounded out of breath. 

“And if we don’t have the money will they accept a strip-tease?!!” Logan could hear Janus’ voice in the background, he also sounded winded. 

“What the hell is going on?” Logan asked. 

“We were gonna go to some place to get our nails done when we walked by this group of kids and Remus started shouting at them cause he drank like two cans of Monster already, and then one of the kids said minecraft sucked and Remus started chasing him!!!” Roman screamed. “Oh my god it looked like he was gonna drop kick this freaking ten year old!!”

“I’m thirteen!!!” A voice that Logan didn’t recognize yelled in the background. 

“What are you doing?” Logan was now growing very concerned. “Did you kidnap a child?!”

“No he and his rabies infested friends are chasing us through a parking garage!!!”

“Remus do not jump in front of that car!!!” Janus’ angry voice yelled again. 

“We don’t have rabies!!” Another kid screamed. 

“Well you sure look like you do!!” Roman screeched. 

“Stop antagonizing them!” Logan snapped. 

“Put the trash can down! Put the goddamn trash can down!!” Janus screamed. 

A very loud and echoing crash followed this along with several screams and curses before Logan was hung up on. He looked at his phone, wondering if he should call back, but quickly decided not to and instead put his phone on do-not-disturb. 

“What was that about?” Patton asked. 

“Nothing we have to worry about for another fifteen minutes.” Logan shrugged. 

“Rocks!” Virgil shrieked and raced over to the next exhibit. 

Logan and Patton both watched fondly as she ran and followed her, pinkies interlocked. 

“Rocks.” Patton sighed. 

“Rocks.” Logan affirmed. 

Virgil marvelled at the variety of geodes from crystal to quartz to wulfenite. Admiring the shapes and colors and shine and shimmer of each and every one. Excitedly noting each one they remembered from Steven Universe and which ones they wanted to eat because it looked like it had a nice crunch. By the time they left Virgil had picked her favorite-fire opal-Patton had picked his favorite-labradorite-and were gushing to each other about them. Logan once again had to usher the two around and finally Virgil had deemed it time to go to the dinosaurs. 

“Ah!” Virgil giggled. “Look look look! The last American dinosaur! Whaaaaat!”

Patton panned the camera over to Virgil and then to the skeletons in front of him. Virgil read this one out loud for the video and then pointed out some things that the information had talked about. Logan watched with a smile. 

“Logan!” He groaned and turned to his right to see Roman and Janus heading his way. When they finally stopped in front of him they were both panting and completely winded. 

“Oh my god.” Logan rolled his eyes. “You two look like shit.”

“Thanks.” Janus jabbed him in the side. 

“How was it getting beat up by some pre-teens?” Logan asked smugly. 

“Janus! Roman!” Patton greeted. 

“You got beat up by pre-teens? Ha. Lame.” Virgil snickered, then gasped aggressively and ran. “Oh my god is that a Bev?!”

“You guys are the worst.” Roman huffed.

“Okay, can we like, hang out here for the next hour or so? I don’t know how long those gremlins are gonna be out there?” Janus asked between pants. 

“I guess, I don’t know how long Virge wants to hang out here still.” Patton shrugged. 

“Oh yeah and we do everything for Virgil.” Roman rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, we do.” Patton looked at him pointedly. 

“Do you have a problem with that?” Logan dead-panned. 

“N-no, no.” Roman backed up. 

“Mhm.” Patton looked away. 

“Wait, where’s Remus?” Janus asked. 

“Oh shit.” Roman put his hand over his mouth. 

“You lost Remus?” Logan stared at the two. 

“You what?!”

“Oh Remus’ll be fine.” Janus scoffed. 

“It’s not Remus I’m worried about.” Patton scoffed. 

“Logan?! How do I say this?” Virgil asked Logan from where she stood at the base of a dinosaur skeleton. “Tree-charo-tops?”

“Triceratops.” Logan said as he made his way over. 

“Got it.” Virgil nodded. “It’s like a giant Bev!”

“It uses these three horns to protect itself! From-from that thing!” Virgil looked around before seeing the large Tyrannosaurus sign. “Oh my god wait what is that thing?”

Logan watched her move on again. He walked back to Patton, Roman, and Janus who now were all talking to the camera. He kept a close eye on Virgil as they took pictures of themself with the dinosaurs and took pictures of the plaques, then as she bounced between the Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus displays.

“Remus there you are!” Patton exclaimed. He ran over to Remus who walked through the exhibit’s doorway and hugged him tight. “You scared me.”

“Aw sorry Pattio but I had to take a little detour.” Remus shrugged. 

“To Target?” Roman asked, pointing out the plastic bag. 

“Yes to Target, there’s one like right by the hotel and I needed some things.” Remus informed him. “Where’s Virge? I got ‘em something.” 

“Hey Virge, Remus has a gift for you.” Logan told her. 

Virgil was stirred from her excited state and looked to the group confused before spying Remus and racing over to him. 

“Right in here.” Remus opened the target bag. “See it’s purple monster energy! And I got a green one so now we’re matching.”

“Ooo!!” Virgil reached inside and pulled out the can. 

“Whoa whoa!” Patton shoved his phone at Logan to keep filming and got between the two. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Virge monster energy is uh a lot.”

“But we’re matching.” Virgil motioned between Remus and themself. 

“I-I know but . . . well it’s really bad for you.” Patton tried again. 

“No it’s not. I drink this stuff by the truckloads and I’m perfectly fine.” Remus laughed. 

Virgil looked at the can. “Yeah, I’ll just have this some other time.”

“Ugh whatever.” Remus swiped it away and put it back in his bag. “Besides, this wasn’t the real surprise. The real surprise is our next destination! I took one of my dad’s credit cards before we left so the second you’re ready to leave we’re headed to this hair salon a few blocks away and getting your hair dyed kid!”

“What?!” Virgil jumped. 

“What?” Patton asked. 

“Remus.” Roman groaned. 

“It’s my little treat to you.” Remus booped Virgil on the nose before crossing his arms. “Besides, I gotta re-dye my own hair and I figure getting it done professionally could be fun.”

“Oh my gods!! You can’t be serious!” Virgil wagged her hands in the air. 

“Seriously you can’t be serious.” Roman sighed. 

“Well it was Janus’ idea.” Remus pointed to his boyfriend. 

“Kid wants their hair dyed, I say let them get their hair dyed.” Janus shrugged. 

“You really want this?” Patton asked Virgil. 

“Mhm!!” Virgil nodded aggressively, continuing the hand-wagging. 

“Well,” Patton took a long breath in. “You better figure out what color you want.”

Virgil let out a little squeak and started jumping again. They didn’t say anything for the next bit and everyone figured to give her a little time while she processed. 

“I’ll go with you two.” Patton told Remus. “To keep an eye on you of course.”

There was something in his tone that made Logan think there was something else on his mind, but he didn’t say anything. 

“Yeah yeah.” Remus rolled his eyes, though he didn’t seem too upset. 

“Remus,” Virgil got his attention. “Why is there women’s deodorant in your bag?” 

“Hmm?” Remus looked in the bag. “Oh, ha yeah, I need deodorant so.”

“Women’s?” Logan asked. 

“Well duh!” Remus said as if it was obvious. “Look, women’s deodorant is always something like ‘lilac’ or ‘fresh’ or ‘rose blossom’. You know what flavor you’re getting! Men’s deodorant? It’s all named ‘extreme blast’ and ‘ultra cool’ what the hell does ‘extreme blast’ mean?! How am I supposed to smell like extreme blast?!”

“Flavor?” Patton asked innocently. 

Janus, Virgil, and Roman all groaned. 

“Yep.” Remus nodded smugly. “Flavor.”

Patton visibly shuddered. Virgil ushered Remus over to the triceratops to take pictures of Virgil with it and admire the statue together. Roman and Janus decided to go around and look at some of the exhibits cause they might as well while they’re waiting for the kids to lose interest. 

Finally it was time for Patton, Logan, and Virgil to go to their special exhibit about the T-Rex. The three took off and explored the area a little bit before the presentation began. Most of the information was something Logan already knew from before so he was able to just watch Virgil and Patton’s expression as the narrator went along. By the time they had finished Virgil and Patton were buzzing with joy as they talked on and on about what they learned to each other and the camera. 

“Hey c’mon you two!” Remus called them over. “Let’s go get our hair done!”

“We’re coming!” Patton waved at him. 

The three met their friends and the group of six finally left the museum. Remus, Patton, and Virgil said their quick goodbyes and ran off toward the hair salon. Logan, Roman, and Janus decided to get food as it was already getting close to when they would have to be back at the hotel. As they left their pizza place with bags of leftovers for the others they passed a Target and Logan got a bright idea. 

Once back at the hotel the three were a little annoyed to find that they’d beat the others but all went up to their rooms to get ready in the short amount of time they had. 

“God where are they?!” Logan heard Roman’s frustration through the phone. The two were on call while getting ready and were fully stressing out over Remus, Patton, and Virgil not being back at the hotel yet. 

“I don’t know Roman.” Logan sighed. Roman had been asking the same damn question for the past ten minutes and it wasn’t helping. 

“Hey what are you doing with your hair?” 

“What? Why?” Logan asked, looking at himself in the mirror. 

“Well I don’t want to do the same thing as you.” Roman said as if it was obvious. 

“Roman, we’re wearing our helmets the whole time, no one is going to see our hair.” Logan told him. 

“Okay but incase anyone does see my hair-”

“Well then you’d have nothing to worry about, I’m not doing my hair in any way, because I know no one is going to see it.” Logan rolled his eyes. 

“Great.” Roman said back. 

Logan heard the door to the hotel room open with a click and a creak and he rushed out of the bathroom, not really caring that his dress shirt was unbuttoned. He saw the bed first, its white sheets had been all made-up by whoever cleaned their rooms and Patton’s clothes for the dinner tonight still lay flat and ironed where Renette had left them. 

“Oh don’t you look dashing.” Patton’s sweet laugh echoed through Logan’s ears. 

Logan was startled to say the least. Patton’s dark irises danced with humor as he looked Logan up and down, studying him, gauging his reaction. 

“You’re-” Logan lost his words. 

“Blond.” Patton giggled. “I know.”

“Patton’s what?!?” Roman shouted through the phone.

“Talk later Roman yeah?” Logan didn’t wait for a response. He hung up the phone without a second thought and turned to Patton. “You look amazing.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Patton waved at him. “You, look wonderful. It’s such a shame that you have to button up your shirt for the rest of the night.”

Logan felt his flush all the way down to his chest and chuckled at Patton’s forwardness. “That was smooth.”

“I try.” Patton shrugged. “I better get dressed then huh?”

“Right!” Logan was finally able to peel his eyes away, turning around and walking back into the bathroom. 

“You’re a dork.” Patton called to him. 

“And you look really nice as a blond.” Logan said simply.


	33. Arguing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton has to do Power Rangers duties while dealing with some anxieties and the tensions between Roman and Virgil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Patton centric storyline, logicality fluff because I said so!!, pizza, a comicon panel, dino nuggets
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, food mentions, arguing, sort of a physical altercation but like not really, yelling, bad writing

Patton decided quickly that he hated ‘Power Ranger Dinner Parties’. He had to sit or stand around talking to old-often extremely white-people about how he was great. Patton liked praise sure, but not when it was said like ‘you do such a good job protecting the Earth, now will you say you endorse this bill that harms marginalised people?’. It made Patton annoyed to say the least. One politician after another asking Patton and his friends for things they either didn’t understand or didn’t have control over. How is Patton supposed to help some guy with his yacht money? Patton doesn’t own a yacht! This dinner could only have been made more awkward by anyone the Rangers actually knew showing up, and would you believe it, that happened! Mr. and Mrs.Reeves themselves made a lovely and terribly awkward stop at said dinner party. One of the most difficult parts of the night was not actually interacting with the two, but instead keeping Remus from killing them. And after all of this the final nail in the coffin was the inability for Patton to get a taste of that wonderful looking fancy sushi. How do you go to a dinner party and not get to eat the food?! 

After an egregiously long ceremony and being forced to say goodbye to the people he hadn’t bothered learning the names of, Patton was finally able to leave. He and the other Rangers were escorted to their semi-shitty ubers and after some not-so-subtle arrangement by Roman were all shoved in the cars. Roman and Thomas in the first, Remus and Janus in the second, and Patton and Logan in the last. Lucky for Patton their uber drivers were separated from them by a one-way mirror. Unlucky for their driver that one-way mirror wasn’t soundproof and Patton felt like he hadn’t gotten enough alone time with his boyfriend that day. 

Once back at the hotel Patton’s hopes were brought up when Renette said they had absolutely nothing to do until 12:30 the next day. Oh how naive he was to think that the rest of the night would be a low stakes evening of eating his bodyweight in chocolate and cuddling Logan while watching Marvel movies. 

“Oh my god are they still yelling?” Logan asked, stepping out of the bathroom after his shower. 

Patton pulled the pillow off his face that he had been using to try to muffle the sound and gave Logan an annoyed look. He was a little startled to find that Logan looked especially nice when his hair was wet and Patton deemed it yet another unfair thing about him. 

“They’ve moved past the second problem of the night and now they’re just insulting each other.” Patton told him. “I’m honestly surprised we haven’t gotten any complaints.”

“I’m sure Renette is on her way to kill the both of them now.” Logan shrugged. Sitting down beside Patton. 

As if on cue the door in the room over burst open and slammed against the wall. There was some muffled talking that Patton couldn’t really make out and when everything seemed to settle down Patton smiled and snuggled into Logan’s side. 

“I’m kinda hungry.” Patton sighed.

“Want to get room service?” Logan asked. 

“Eh I don’t know. It’s pretty late, I don’t think they’re still gonna let us order anything.” Patton said.

“Well there’s always Doordash and Postmates.” Logan said, running his hands through Patton’s hair. “And we can just order a pizza.”

“Pizza sounds pretty good.” Patton smiled. “What do you think?”

“Well if we’re going to order pizza we should get some actually good pizza. I think there’s a nice place that we could walk to.”

  
“Oh I’m too lazy to walk.” Patton groaned.

Logan chuckled. “Well I can just walk there myself and bring it back.”

“No no no I’ll go with you.” Patton pulled away from him. “Just give me a sec’ to find my gloves.”

“Alright.” Logan smiled. 

The two started bundling themselves up to head out into the cold. And just as they were about to leave a loud yell came from Roman and Virgil’s room again. 

“Remus stay the hell out of this!!”

“Don’t talk to Remus that way!!” 

Patton groaned and decided he’d had enough. He pushed past Logan and pounded on the door. It was opened by Remus barely a second later and Patton stepped in as angry as possible. 

“What in the world is going on?!” He exclaimed. “You’re not the only people in this hotel so stop yelling or I swear to god we’re separating you two.”

“That’s fine with me!” Virgil crossed their arms. “I don’t want to be anywhere near this pretentious asshole.”

“Well I don’t want to be anywhere near you either!” Roman scowled. 

“That wasn’t an answer!!” Patton shouts. 

“Roman started it!” Virgil accused. “He got all pissed at me for no reason!”

“No reason?! You’re the one with the attitude!! God you suck!!” Roman stomped. 

Vrigil looked like they were going to say something else but before they could Remus leaned down and whispered something in Virgil’s ear. 

“And you swallow.” Virgil countered with a smirk. 

The room was quiet for a beat. Patton was a little startled by Virgil while Remus just looked proudly at them. Then the room exploded. Roman and Virgil went back to their screaming match, Remus fell to the ground cackling, Janus snorted and finally looked up from his phone, Patton began doing what he could to get them to stop yelling, and Logan left. 

“God do you two even remember what you’re fighting about?!” Patton tried. 

“Well Roman was being a prick-”

“And Virgil couldn’t even look me in the eye-”

“He was being such a dick-”

“They knew they were being rude but they didn’t care-”

“So you don’t actually know what you’re fighting about?” Patton rubbed his head exasperatedly. 

“He started it!” Virgil pointed at Roman at the same time Roman said “They started it!”. 

“And I’m ending it!” Patton walked over and smacked the both of them upside the head. “Now stop yelling and make up or so help me-”

“Virgil sit down, Roman go get changed.” Logan said suddenly from the doorway. 

“What?” Virgil asked. 

“Sit down at the table behind you, Roman go get changed into your pajamas.” Logan stated. 

Roman grumbled but opened one of his drawers and pulled out some pajamas, heading to the bathroom to change. 

“Here.” Logan walked over to where Virgil had sat down and placed a plate down. “You haven’t eaten dinner yet. Eat this.”

“What uh-what is it?” Virgil asked. 

“Dinosaur nuggets.” Logan stated. “Chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs.”

Virgil didn’t say anything. Just looked down at the plate in awe before digging in like they’d been starved their whole life. Patton sadly knew that they sort of had. 

“Now everyone out.” Logan said firmly. 

“Well this was entertaining.” Janus laughed. “C’mon Mus.”

Remus hummed happily and let Janus take his hand and lead him out to the hall. Roman stepped out of the bathroom, officially ready for bed and looking thoroughly exhausted. 

“I love you Logan.” Virgil called as he and Patton began leaving. 

“I know Virge.” Logan smiled. “I love you too.”

Finally the door closed behind them and Patton and Logan were left alone yet again. 

“Pizza time?” Patton asked sweetly. 

“Sounds wonderful.” Logan locked his arm in Patton’s and the two made their way to the elevators. 

. . . 

“Please give a warm welcome to our very own Power Rangers!” Renette exclaimed from the stage. 

Roman led the way in front of the crowd, Logan and Patton behind him, Janus and Remus behind them, and Thomas making sure they all got on stage. The crowd applauded and whooped for the team and Patton felt a little uncomfortable with it. It wasn’t like he was uncomfortable with crowds, he certainly wasn’t. Oftentimes crowds was his specialty. He also didn’t mind having the attention on him, he was a YouTuber afterall, it wasn’t like he could afford to be a wallflower. Instead he was uncomfortable with the way they were treating him. It felt wrong that they were applauding him for being something he had no choice to be. He didn’t want them to see him as more than human, as better than all of them. Afterall he wasn’t. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time and was gifted this strange ability. He didn’t even want it at first. Sometimes he still didn’t want it. Patton wouldn’t admit that though. He wondered if any of the Avengers ever felt like this. 

Patton was so lost in his head that Logan had to stir him out of it and sit him down. The pit of uneasiness in his stomach only grew as he looked out at the crowd. They all seemed to be his age or younger, a smattering of adults however, no doubt here for the nostalgia of when they grew up with the Power Rangers. Patton wondered if any of them had been to one of these before. If they’d come to see the new team. 

Patton didn’t hesitate to grab Logan’s hand under the table and squeeze it. Luckily no one could see. 

“Thank you, thank you.” Renette calmed the crowd. “Now, I believe we were going to go through some introductions before turning over to questions so if we can go down the line please, and let's say a little something about yourself as well.”

They had rehearsed this part, ensuring none of them could mess up so early.

“Uh sure.” Roman looked to the crowd, though Patton couldn’t see he knew his eyes must have been sparkling with delight. “Hello everyone, I am your Red Ranger, I’m seventeen and I love musical theater.” 

The crowd cheered. Patton wondered if they were going to keep this up the whole time. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, he just remembered a John Mulaney bit where he asked the crowd to not cheer too much in the beginning of his set so they were able to keep their energy up the whole time. 

“I’m the Blue Ranger, I’m seventeen and I enjoy fantasy novels.” Logan said into the mic. 

More cheering. It seemed that the crowd had sectioned themselves off according to which Power Ranger was their favorite. It certainly seemed like the loudest cheers were all coming from the same directions anyway. 

“I’m the Pink Ranger, I’m eighteen and I love pancakes.” Patton gave them a small wave. 

The loudest cheers came from the left side of the room this time. 

“I’m the Yellow Ranger, I’m also eighteen, and I’m wondering why in the world they put cups of water in front of us, we can’t drink from them.” Janus motioned to his glass of water. 

Patton hadn’t even noticed the water in front of him. The laughter from the crowd was drowned out by Patton’s own heartbeat pounding in his head. He tried to think of ways to make it stop but that only seemed to make the problem worse. 

“I’m the Green Ranger, I’m seventeen, and I love arson.” Remus said cheerily. 

“Green.” Renete warned. 

“Fine fine, don’t do arson,” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You can’t tell but I’m winking under this helmet. I love uh Miley Cyrus. Yeah. I think she’s cool as hell.”

“Green!”Renette scolded.

“Ugh you are just like Pink. I can’t swear, I can’t like arson, jeez.” Remus sat back in his chair and propped his legs up on the table. “This is what I have to deal with.”

The crowd laughed again. 

“And I’m the Black Ranger.” Thomas finished. He didn’t need to say any more. 

Everyone cheered as loud as they could. Patton recoiled a bit. He wondered why in the world this was happening to him. Apparently though Logan had taken notice. As Renette explained how they would do the Q and A portion, Logan had moved his chair ever so slightly closer to Patton’s and released his hand to grasp Patton’s forearm. Running his thumb along the inside of Patton’s arm. 

“Just focus on this, it's okay.” Logan whispered softly. 

Patton heard those words echo in his head and he replayed them over and over. Listening to all the little inflections that Logan had given, and the sweetness of this gesture. Patton felt the bubbling of worry begin to calm, but never truly fade. 

Patton watched as one of Renette’s assistants, he wished he remembered her name, circled around the crowd before handing a microphone to someone. It quieted and the girl stood up, she had to be young, maybe twelve or thirteen, and she looked incredibly awkward, but excited nonetheless. 

“Uhm hi, I’m Ava.” She said with a smile. “I was uh wondering what are your favorite colors?”

This question got quite a few reactions. Some people seemed a little annoyed, others laughed, others cheered a bit. 

“Excellent question Ava.” Roman swooped in to save the poor girl who was quickly turning red. “I have to say my favorite colors are red and gold. Actually they were my favorites before I was a Ranger. Both are bold, royal colors.”

“And he is nothing if not a bit of a narcissist.” Logan said and got a laugh. “I don’t really have any favorite color.”

“Oh don’t be such a stick in the mud.” Patton teased. 

“Yeah Blue, stop being boring!” Remus laughed. 

“Fine fine, my favorite color is dark blue.” Logan conceded. “Happy?”

“Very.” Patton nodded. “My favorite is also blue, but more of an electric light blue ya know?”

The crowd seemed to really like that answer. 

“My favorite is black.” Janus said simply. 

“And my favorite is yellow.” Remus turned to Janus. The crowd once again went a little nuts, though a bit more so. “I’m kidding it’s actually orange.” They laughed. 

“My favorite is Red.” Thomas told her. 

“Thank you for the question Ava.” Patton smiled, he knew she couldn’t see but the bright smile back told him enough. 

The assistant started moving around again as the people in the crowd tried calling her over. Logan’s grip on Patton’s arm loosened a bit but never moved and Patton looked over at him, he wished so badly to see Logan’s face. 

“Hey you good P?” Janus leaned over and asked Patton. 

“Yeah, I think I’m just tired or something.” Patton assured him. 

“I was thinking after this we all go out to eat before seeing the musical?” 

“That sounds good.” Patton replied. 

“Hello my name is Gina.” Another girl from the crowd said, she wasn’t nearly as awkward. “And uhm, Blue mentioned that he liked fantasy books so I was just wondering what your favorite book is? And uhm, what all of your favorite books are?”

“Oh, well, actually my favorite isn’t a fantasy novel, it’s The Stand by Stephen King and I believe that falls under horror.” Logan told her. 

“And while that book is incredibly long and unbelievably pretentious-”

“Do you even know what pretentious means?” Logan interrupted Roman. 

“I instead will have to say the best book is Carry On and its sequel Wayward Son.” Roman finished. 

“The question wasn’t ‘what’s the best book?’.” Thomas pointed out.

“Yeah, because if it was the answer would be Six of Crows.” Janus said firmly. 

“No no, the best book is no book. Books are boring.” Remus countered. 

“Oh please just because you can’t read doesn’t mean reading is boring.” Logan stated. 

“Hey I can read, but I’m just saying, it’s boring. Watch tv.” Remus said. “So much more fun.”

“This is why you’re not getting into college.” Roman sighed. 

“Hey I’m still doing better than you!” Remus snickered. 

“Okay okay,” Thomas calmed them down, “I’d say my favorite book is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”

A beat of expecting quiet passed before Patton realized they were waiting for him. 

“Oh, uh it’s hard to pick a favorite but right now I’m rereading the first Percy Jackson series so I’m going to say the Last Olympian is my favorite.” Patton said happily. 

People really liked that answer. Patton was pleased to hear the general agreement. The assistant once again went around. 

“Hi I’m Isaac.” A boy waved a little once he’d been handed the mic. He looked about Patton’s age. “And I was wondering if I could ask Pink for a favor.”

Patton perked up and tilted his head. “Of course what do ya need?”

“Well, my friend Violet is uhm a really big fan of yours and I was wondering if I could get a video of you congratulating her for starting her transition? She’s trans and she just started HRT so.”

“I’d love to.” Patton said. 

“Here Isaac, come to the stage right here and Pink will happily take a video with you.” Renette gestured. 

Isaac handed the mic back to the assistant and started making his way over to where Renette had pointed. Patton stood up, receiving a quick squeeze on his forearm from Logan before his hand dropped and Patton went over to Isaac. The poor boy seemed to fidgety now that he and Patton were this close. He pulled out his phone and started a video with the two of them. 

“Hi Violet,” Patton started. “Your friend Isaac said you’re a fan of mine and I really appreciate that. He also mentioned that you just started your transition and I couldn’t be more proud. This is a huge deal and I hope one day I get to see you in person so I can give you a hug. I just know that everything is gonna go wonderfully for you and I can’t wait for you to feel like the beautiful wonderful girl you are.”

“We’re all so proud of you Violet!” Roman exclaimed. 

“From one trans personn to another I couldn’t be more happy for you.” Logan told her. The other Rangers all said their hellos and congratulations to Violet. 

The crowd ‘aww’d as Isaac stopped the video and gave Patton a quick hug before running back to his seat. 

“Alright next question.” Renette said, though her grin was far wider now. 

The assistant reached though all the hands that were waving and handed the mic to another girl, also around their age. Patton heard an audible gasp from Roman as the girl stood up. He and Logan looked to Roman confused by his reaction. 

“What is it?” Logan asked, covering the mic.

“Nothing.” Roman shot back.

Logan turned to Patton who shrugged, just as confused. 

“Hi my name is Alice.” The girl greeted. “And I really hope this doesn’t bring the mood down but I have a bit of a serious question for Red.”

Roman didn't say anything, he just seemed very stiff as he waited. Nothing like the collected, dazzling, stage performance ready Roman from before. 

“Uhm, what do you have to say about all of the incels that use the Red Ranger as a sort of symbol for their cause?” She asked. 

Roman loosened up, but not completely. He gave a little annoyed groan and dropped his head before looking back up. 

“Sorry Alice that groan wasn’t about you or the question I just-ugh I thought all of that had stopped you know? I mean when I was younger I remember seeing the Black Ranger used in that way and it always pissed me off. And when I first became a Power Ranger I saw some stuff like that, but I couldn’t really say anything.” Roman stated. “Look I’m gonna say it here cause I know that this is being put on YouTube and you guys are probably taking videos and whatever so just stop using me and every one of us as a martyr for your misogyny, homophobia, racism, transphobia, and more. Like I am a seventeen year old gay theater nerd, I’m not your symbol of hate.” 

The crowd cheered and applauded. 

“I think we’d all just really appreciate it if y’all would stop making us your incelly mascots.” Janus stated. “Or better yet, stop being incels! I’m african-american and queer, don’t act like me or my boyfriend,” he jabbed a finger at Remus, “are gonna agree with your shitty anti-human rights agenda.”

“Just to be clear I’m the boyfriend.” Remus said cheekily. 

The crowd basically erupted. When they finally seemed to have calmed down the mic was handed off to another person. 

“Hi uh did any of you know the previous Power Ranger, other than Black of course.” This person asked. 

It went quiet. Patton turned to Renette, this wasn’t something they had gone over in the little preparation that they’d done. She gave Patton a little smile and nod and Patton turned back to the crowd. He felt Logan once again grab his forearm under the table and offer a comforting anchor. 

“Actually, the previous Pink and Blue Rangers were my adoptive parents.” Patton said softly. The audience gasped. “So I knew all of the previous Power Rangers, I grew up around them.”

“So then did you plan on becoming the Pink Ranger?” 

“Ha no.” Patton admitted. “You can’t really plan on becoming the Pink Ranger. It’s not really a choice. In fact, I had promised my parents that I would never be a Power Ranger, but uh, here I am.” 

They moved on to the next question. The questions kept coming and coming and the Ranger all answered to the best of their abilities. It certainly felt like there were a lot more questions for Janus and Remus about their relationship than anything else about themselves but Renette had told them to expect that if they decided to tell the world about their relationship. It only really got awkward when any questions about Virgilius came up. What exactly are you supposed to say? ‘You know that guy who terrorized us for years? Well turns out they're actually a sweetheart who was forced into war and traumatized by their terrible mother.’ Sure maybe some people would take it, but certainly not everyone. 

When the panel finally came to a close the Rangers were ushered off of the stage, leaving behind the sounds of applause and cameras. Once they were safely away from any crowd or camera the group deactivated their armor and collapsed amongst the couches and chairs. 

“What’s next Thomas?” Remus asked as he practically laid on top of Janus. 

“Well, we’ve got a couple hours but later tonight we’re going to see Hadestown, then all of you better get really good sleep.” Thomas told him. 

“In the meantime though, I say we eat our body weights in pizza yeah?” Janus suggested. 

“Ooo, we can go to the same place we went last night.” Patton gestured to himself and Logan. “It was pretty good.”

“And it’s close to the hotel.” Logan added. 

“You two went out for pizza last night?” Roman asked. 

“That sounds great.” Thomas nodded, pulling out his phone. 

“Just the two of you?” Roman asked, his tone getting a little intense. 

“Mhm.” Patton nodded. “It was nice.”

“It was.” Logan nodded along with Patton. 

“Hey, Virge is texting me.” Remus announced. 

“They want to know if they’re coming to the play tonight cause if not then they want more dino nuggets.” Janus summarized as he read over Remus’ shoulder. “Jeez this kid needs to learn how to text.”

“Yes they’re coming, but I think we can sneak in some dino nuggets.” Thomas mused. 

“It’s more a musical than a play but.” Roman stated offhandedly. 

“Shut up Roman.” Remus kicked his twin. 

“You shut up.” Roman retorted. 

“Hows about everyone shut up so I can send this email without a raging headache!” Renette snapped. 

The Rangers did as asked. 

“Thank you. Now, pizza sounds like a wonderful choice, you all can head out in a minute or so, I’ll meet you back at the hotel. I trust that when I told you to bring something a little more classy to wear you actually headed my orders yes?” Renette sighed. 

“You bet I brought something classy.” Remus told her. “Who would I be if I didn’t?”

“I’m terrified to know what on Earth you brought.” Logan dead-panned. 

“As am I but it’s too late now. I’ll take it.” Renette shrugged. 

“Okay so Virgil now wants to know who’s sneaking in the dino nuggets, and if they can sit by them.” Janus stated. 

“And they don’t want that person to be Roman.” Remus snickered. “Ha ha.”

“Well I don’t want to sit next to them either.” Roman crossed his arms and huffed. 

  
“Tell Virgil we’ll figure it out later.” Thomas said. “Make sure you share the location of the pizza place with Renette so she can make sure Emile, Remy, and Virgil can meet us there.” 

“I’m on it.” Patton stated, wanting to be helpful. 

“Alright let’s get going. I need out of this room.” 

. . . 

“Gods I hate you!!” Virgil shouted. 

“Well you’ll be glad to know the feeling’s mutual!!” Roman shouted back. 

Patton thought his head was going to explode. He wanted to cry, scream, and die all at once. None of those could be done however. He can’t cry because if he does he doesn’t think he could stop. No screaming for Patton because it’s not gonna solve anything, and no dying because Logan would be sad. 

“Can you two shut the hell up!!” Logan yelled at them. 

“This whole arguing thing was entertaining at first, but now it’s just annoying.” Janus agreed. 

“Oh I’m so sorry that we’re such inconveniences for you two but I’m not going to put up with this prick and his holier-than-thou attitude!!” Virgil pointed an accusing finger at Roman. 

“Don’t point at me you little shit! You’re the one who thinks they can boss me around and hates me for no reason!!” Roman yelled. 

“No reason?!!” Virgil laughed and then looked at Roman with a serious intensity. “You’re such an asshole!! I won’t put up with you threatening me and being a general bitch to me! Maybe everyone else around you is fine with it, but I’m not.”

“Oh I’m so sorry your highness I didn’t realize I had to treat you like a prince! I thought you weren’t that anymore.” Roman snapped. 

“Don’t you dare!! You’re a monster!” Virgil shouted. 

“I’m the monster!?! You had six eyes!!!” 

“You’re the one acting like a prince!! Sorry I can’t be everything you want!! You set those expectations for what I should be and I have no obligation to live up to them!!” 

“You could at least be a decent person!!” Roman countered. 

“You could at least treat me like a person!!!” 

“What started it this time?” Remus asked Janus. 

“Honestly I’m not sure.” Janus answered. 

“They’re not sure.” Logan scowled. 

Patton was finding it hard to breathe. His lungs were never full enough, his head felt cloudy and full, his hands were cold clammy. Everything felt off, off just enough to cause him distress. He shivered, though it certainly wasn’t because of the cold. No, the hotel room was pretty warm. Something else was causing him to shudder. He just wasn’t sure what. 

“Pat?” Logan asked softly. “Are-are you okay?”

“Mhm!” Patton gave a smile and nodded. 

“It’s okay to not be okay Pat.” Logan whispered. “Maybe we should leave.”

“What’s going on?” Janus was leaning over and looking at Patton with concern. 

“Pat are you good?” Remus was looking from the two’s yelling match to Patton, his face quickly falling from annoyance to uneasiness. 

“I can’t get enough air-” Patton stopped, needing to take a deep breath. 

“You can’t get enough air into your lungs?” Logan guessed. “You’re probably beginning to have a panic attack. Have you ever had one before?”

Patton nodded. 

“Okay, are-are you able to tell me how to help you or-”

There was a bang and Patton couldn’t help the small jump and yelp that he did, his eyes tearing away from Logan’s to the scene before them. Roman had grabbed Virgil’s shirt collar and pushed them against the wall, both more angry than Patton had ever seen them. 

“Shit!” Janus stood up. 

“Roman!” Remus yelled. 

Virgil got a new look on their face. They seemed determined if Patton wasn’t wrong. 

“The only reason you’re here is because you’ve somehow convinced Patton that you’re not an evil little prince here to kill us all!!! Patton’s trust in you is the only reason I haven’t cut you down yet!!!” Roman yelled. “The second you break that, and I know you will, I won’t hesitate to put you in your place!!!”

Patton swallowed. He was terrified to say the least. This was the first time a fight like this had gotten physical with them and his urge to cry was getting a lot harder to repress. He watched however, as Virgil grabbed Roman’s wrist, taking his grip off on his shirt and holding it up. 

“And the only reason you gave that guy your number and you’re threatening me like this,” They said with a cool tone that made everyone in the room shiver. “Is because you haven’t fallen in love with me yet.”

They gave Roman’s knuckles a chaste kiss before shoving Roman so hard he fell and striding out of the room. 

“Virgil-”

“I’m going to see Emile.” Virgil said sternly before slamming the door behind them. 

Roman still sat on the carpet, his face a mix of shock and anger, as he stared at the place Virgil had just stood against the wall. It was too silent. 

“What the shit!!” Remus yelled. 

_ There it is _ , Patton sighed. 

“Roman what the actual hell has gotten into you!!” Janus stalked over to the twin on the ground. 

“Janus,” Logan warned. “Leave him alone for a second-”

“No! No that was totally uncalled for!” Janus argued. 

“Virgil can fight their own battles, Janus.” Logan reminded, his voice firmer than before. “Besides, the both of them are to blame. Right now everyone just needs to calm down.”

“Pat,” Remus whipped around and crouched so he and Patton were eye-level. “Are you okay?”

“I-I-” Patton’s throat felt raw. His head pounded harder. 

“Patton I’m gonna need you to follow my breathing.” Logan directed Patton’s face towards his own and placed his hand over Patton’s forearm, tapping a slow beat that followed Logan’s breathing. Patton focused on the feeling, hoping Logan wouldn’t let go. 

“Shit, uhm, I-I have some drugs that he can take.” Remus offered. “They-they help me calm down when-shit, they just make it easier, it’s nothing bad or anything I swear.”

“How does that sound Pat?” Logan asked. “Do you think that would help?”

Patton shook his head. The idea of something going down his throat made his breath hitch. His throat hurt so badly.  _ Why does it hurt?  _ He tried to ask Logan this question without actually asking him. He pointed fervently to his throat. 

“Janus can you get Patton some water?” Logan asked. 

Patton didn’t know if that would help, but at this point he’d do anything Logan said. After retrieving and handing over the water Janus started pacing on the floor. Whether intentionally or not he walked on beat to Logan’s breathing. Patton hesitantly put the cup of water up to his lips and tried to swallow. It hurt at first but the relief began washing over him soon and Patton could feel himself calming down. 

“It’s-it’s been a while.” Janus stated. “I’m gonna go to Emile’s room. To check on Virgil.”

“Okay.” Logan nodded. “Ask them if they need anything, they’re stim toys and stuff are all in here.”

“Right.” Janus looked a little confused but nodded anyway and left the room. 

“Ro?” Remus asked. His voice was hoarse too. Patton didn’t know why and Roman didn’t answer. “RoRo are you alright. You’ve been sitting there a while.”

Again no answer. 

“Does he need something?” Remus asked Logan. 

“I think he just needs some time to process. I’ve never seen him get like that. And no one’s ever reacted to him like that. It’s been a stressful week.” Logan decided. “Pat I think we should head back to our room. Can you get up?”

Patton nodded, figuring his legs weren’t weak and he let Logan help him stand. 

“Should I do something?” Remus asked. 

“Just, stay here with him.” Logan told him. “He’s gonna need you.”

“Okay.” Remus looked a little lost but sat down beside his brother anyway. 

“Pat,” Logan had turned and was speaking to him alone. “Can you tell me what you need right now?”

“I don’t know.” Patton answered honestly. 

“Okay, that’s okay.” Logan gave him a sweet smile, a smile that made Patton’s stomach flutter, but if he was being honest that wasn’t what he needed right now. 

“You’re too handsome for your own good.” Patton told Logan breathlessly. 

“You’re having a panic attack right now and you think it’s a good time to flirt?” Logan reached for the door handle. 

“Any time is a good time to flirt. I learned that from Roman.” Patton tried to return Logan’s smile. 

“Roman flirts because it’s his only coping mechanism that he can use in daily life other than singing musical numbers.” Logan stated. 

“Well I think you deserve to be flirted with.” 

Logan laughed a little again and opened the door finally, only for the two to come face-to-face with a very panicked looking Janus. 

“Virgil’s gone!!” Janus wheezed out. 

“Oh fuck.” Patton collapsed himself into Logan’s side. 


	34. Hypatia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Power Rangers and friends scramble to find Virgil, and end up learning a lot more than they anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Janus centric, fluff, Janus is a romantic let me live, ya’ll wanted some prinxiety content?? oh ho ho you better get ready, this is just the beginning.
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, getting lost, mentions of pains and medical issues, mentions of anxiety, brief mention of kidnapping, lying, anger, crying, angst, mention of uhh basically genocide

“What do you mean they’re missing?!” Logan exclaimed. 

“I mean what I said Logan!!” Janus told him. “I went to Emile’s room and VIrgil wasn’t there and he said Virgil never showed so I called Virgil and they wouldn’t pick up and Emile called Virgil and they didn’t pick up for Emile either!! They’re gone!”

“Virgil’s gone?!” Remus shot up. 

“Yes I said that!”

“Mother of-”

“Call Thomas!” Patton said suddenly. “Call Thomas, tell him what’s going on! Logan get my phone and text Virgil asking them if they’re alright. Roman I need you to get your ass off the floor and find Renette and tell her that we don’t know where Virgil is. Remus, get me a cookie and some of those drugs you were talking about.”

It was quiet for a beat. Janus was frankly a little stunned that Patton was giving orders while clinging to Logan’s side like he was the only thing keeping Patton up. 

“I’m sorry, do I need to shout? Get a move on people c’mon!” Patton huffed. 

Janus grabbed his phone out of his pocket and started dialing, Remus and Roman raced past him, Remus across the hall and into their room while Roman was going down the hall to Renette’s room. Logan walked over to the bed with Patton and set him down before grabbing Patton’s phone out of his pocket and opening it. 

“Uh Pat I don’t know your password.” Logan said quietly. 

“Five, six, four, two, six.” Patton said. “It’s just the numbers that correspond with your name.”

“Oh.” Logan nodded. 

_ That’s weird _ . Janus thought, his phone ringing by his ear.  _ Why are those two being so weird? No Janus, focus. Virgil. _

“Janus?” Thomas’ voice asked through his phone. 

“Thomas! Oh god, okay, so we sort of lost Virgil.”

“What?!” Janus was starting to hate that word. 

“Yeah uhm, Roman and Virgil got into another fight and Virgil left for Emile’s room but they never actually went to Emile’s room and they’re not answering their phone.” Janus rushed to say. “Do you have any idea where they might be.”

“Uh, oh god, shit, uh,” Thomas stuttered out. “Alright uhm, call Renette-”

“We’re already doing that, I just need to know if you’ve seen them.”

“I haven’t.” Thomas told him. “Hang on I-dammit Virgil! They turned off their location. I can’t track their phone.”

“You track their location?”

“No not really, I just figured I’d set something up in case they get lost somewhere and I needed to pick them up.” Thomas said. 

“Okay, okay, do you have any ideas?” Janus asked. 

“No I’m sorry I don’t. I mean we’re in New York, I can’t think of any place Virgil would go to comfort themself.” Thomas said, the panic in his voice quickly rising. 

“Damn, okay I-I’m gonna ask Patton what to do, just call me if you can get a hold of them.” Janus said. 

“I will!” 

Janus hung up and turned to Patton who seemed to be in the middle of hyperventilating and being mad at himself for hyperventilating. 

“Pat? Thomas hasn’t seen Virge and they turned off their location settings. What should we do?” 

“They haven’t answered my texts either.” Logan stated. 

“Okay, okay, god, okay.” Patton breathed hard. 

“Pat!” Remus yelled from the door. He ran over and handed Patton a chocolate chip cookie and a large pill. “Here, this-this should help.”

Patton nodded, quickly taking both and swallowing. 

“Remus what exactly was in that?” Janus asked. 

“Uh, just some mushrooms and like, calming stuff. I-I don’t really know I just know that when I take it I calm down.” Remus shrugged. 

“You just gave Patton drugs and you don’t even know what kind of drugs they were?” Logan looked at Remus incredulously.

“I mean he asked-”

“Shut up!” Patton cried. “You’re all giving me a headache.”

No one spoke. 

“Okay, unless Renette chipped Virgil or something there’s nothing we can do until Virgil contacts us so-”

“How the actual hell did you lose Virgil?!” Renette shouted from the door. She stormed over to the group, Roman in tow. 

“Oh shit Ro.” Remus sighed. 

Janus had to agree, he’d never seen Roman crying so terribly before. I mean Janus wouldn’t have described Roman as ugly before, but this was kinda gross. Not uncalled for though. 

“Renette they’re not answering our texts or calls.” Patton said. “They turned off the location on their phone, is there any other way we can track them?”

“No, it’s not like I chipped them or anything! I didn’t think I’d have to worry about them running off you’re all friends so I-”

Roman sobbed at that.

“Okay what the hell is up with him? He said three words and started crying.” Renette crossed her arms. 

“He and Virge were fighting.” Logan said. “That was why Virgil left in the first place so-”

“Right.” Renette nodded. “Okay, well someone get Roman under control, keep trying Virgil’s phone, let’s get everyone in the lobby and start looking around the hotel, I mean they couldn’t have gone far.”

“Right.” Janus nodded. 

“I’m going to leave this to us and us alone, I don’t want anyone else involved.” Renette said sternly. 

“Got it.” Patton nodded. 

Patton started texting Emile and Thomas telling them to meet in the lobby. Remus and Janus were sent to search the floors while Logan and Patton would go to the lobby. Meanwhile Roman would stay in his room with Renette until he calmed down, at which point he was to meet the others in the lobby and leave Renette there in case Virgil came back.

Janus and Remus started walking around their floor, until determining they weren’t there and the two got in the elevator and kept going. Floor after floor there was no sign of Virgil and Janus was starting to really panic. Remus was putting on a brave face that Janus was more than grateful for. The two kept going, eventually deciding to go back up to their rooms to check on Roman and see if Virgil had taken a jacket or anything that would indicate that they left for outside the hotel. Remus went into Roman’s room to try and help his brother while Janus searched his room and Patton and Logan’s. Nothing. Patton texted him and said that they also couldn’t find any sign of Virgil. 

Roman and Remus both left Roman’s room together, waving goodbye to Renette and promising they’d return with Virgil. The two met Janus in the hall and started walking silently to the elevator before Roman stopped them. 

“Something weird happened a little while ago.” He said quietly. 

“What’s ‘something weird’?” Remus asked. 

“Virgil.” Roman tried. “They-last night we were both asleep when they suddenly just woke up and-and they were in pain. I didn’t know what to do but their arms, their arms looked all, messed up. Like purple and-and wrong and I don’t know but Virgil was in a lot of pain and it didn’t go away for a long time. They made me promise not to say anything but then when I got back from the play and it was just the two of us their hands started shaking violently and I was scared it was going to happen again.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Janus asked, a little more bite in his tone that he intended. 

“I just-that’s weird right? Have you guys noticed anything weird about Virgil lately too?” Roman said. 

Janus wanted to snap at him but Remus’ gasp and little look of realization made him stop and think a little harder. 

“I remember Emile mentioning something about Virgil’s headaches to Remy.” Remus said. “Emile was going on about how Virgil was constantly confused and their head hurt so bad but no matter what pain meds they took it never went away. Virgil would just have to sit there and wait it out.”

“There was this one time, uhm, I don’t know Virgil’s hands just started shaking. Like you said Roman, like violently, their hands just wouldn’t stop shaking. But it wasn’t like they were stimming or anything, I know what their stimming looks like. It was something else.” Janus admitted. “I didn’t say anything but Virgil was trying hard to make it seem like they weren’t annoyed by it.”

“See that stuff,” Roman went on. “That’s not normal. I-I’m not trying to insult Virgil at all! I swear! I just don’t think that stuff should be happening to them and-“

Janus’ phone rang. He didn’t bother reading who the caller was; he just picked it up and prayed that it was Virgil.

“Janus?” 

“Dammit Logan.” Janus sighed. “Sorry, sorry I just-“

“You hoped it was Virgil.” Logan finished. “We can’t find them, Thomas thinks we should start going to places we went to earlier. Like restaurants or parks or something.”

“Okay.” Janus agreed. “That sounds good, hey listen, this might sound off topic but uh, have you noticed anything off about Virgil lately? Like have they done anything that doesn’t seem normal for them?” 

“No.” Logan said, his tone completely changed. “Wh-what have you noticed?”

“Well, Roman, Remus and I are just talking and I mean, apparently Virgil’s been getting headaches and shaking hands and-”

“Arm pains and heightened anxiety.” Logan finished for him again. 

“I-yeah. Wait I thought you said you didn’t notice anything weird?”

“I didn’t.” Logan responded. “When we find Virgil we’re all going to need to talk. There’s uh, something I need to tell you guys.”

“Okay.” Janus looked at Roman and Remus nervously. “Okay, but Virgil’s number one. Let’s find them first.”

“Agreed.” 

Logan hung up the phone and Janus turned to the twins to tell them the first part of what Logan had said. 

“So what do we do?” Remus asked. “Should we go out and help?”

“The roof!” Roman snapped his fingers. “The roof, let’s go to the roof. Virgil-their hair should be easy to spot so if they’re nearby or walking somewhere we’ll be able to see them.”

“Good idea!” Remus nodded quickly. “Let’s go!”

“Wait.” Janus groaned but the two were already in the elevator.

_ The elevator doesn’t go up to the roof dumbasses _ , Janus thought. Instead Janus bolted over to the stairs and started climbing. Janus himself hated stairs and running and boring physical exertion similar to running, but with the possibility of reuniting with Virgil he found he didn’t quite care. A few levels away from the roof however Janus found that he quite regretted quitting cross country in tenth grade. Sure fighting aliens pretty much kept him in shape, but if he was being honest with himself, he hasn’t had to do that in a while, and running stairs wasn’t really part of the whole Power Ranger job description.

When he got to the door labeled with ‘roof’ in big white letters he annoyingly found it locked. Janus slipped off his phone case and pulled his driver’s license out from where he typically kept it and started trying to open the door. Finally the lock clicked and Janus shoved it open with a little cheer. He stepped onto the roof and immediately felt the ice cold air against his cheeks. He didn’t pay it any attention though, instead he walked over to the ledge of the roof and looked down at the street. He searched for a bit and decided that if Virgil was still near the hotel Janus would be able to see them. He began worrying that his luck was dwindling however when Virgil’s split-dyed hair was nowhere to be seen. 

“C’mon Virge where are you?” Janus whispered to himself. 

When Janus turned around to head to the other side of the roof and check there he was met with a sight he’d never in his life could have imagined. Virgil stood, their profile to Janus, black and white hair whisking around their head as the wind pushed and pulled at the strands. Their hands out in front of them, fingers outstretched as small glowing orbs or various sizes danced amongst their fingertips. Janus watched as the purple lights weaved between their fingers and circled their arms. Virgil themself seemed unbothered. In fact Janus couldn’t recall a time when he’d seen Virgil look so content. Their eyes seemed to twinkle as they stared at the lights and the smallest of smiles graced their lips. 

“Virgil?” Janus’ head whipped around to see Remus who had just made it to the roof, staring at Virgil much like Janus had just been. 

Virgil pulled their arms back, they made a defensive face and looked like they were about to say something but the roof door slammed open once again and Roman made his appearance. 

“Roman?” Virgil asked. 

“Virgil?” Roman’s voice broke. 

Almost simultaneously the two broke down in tears and ran to each other. Roman lifted Virgil into the air before pulling them back down into an embrace and the two sat practically in each others’ laps, sobbing and muttering apology after apology. 

Janus made his way to Remus and the two exchanged a silent conversation. 

_ You saw that? _

_ Of course I did. _

_ What the hell? _

_ I don’t know. _

_ Later. _

_ Later. _

Janus pulled out his phone and began texting everyone. Thomas responded by telling them to go back to Virgil’s room and that the others would meet them shortly. Janus elbowed his boyfriend when he caught him taking pictures of the two sobbing messes a few feet away, but didn’t say anything. He watched them. Virgil’s legs wrapped around Roman’s waist as they ran their hands through his hair. Roman’s own hands wiping desperately at Virgil’s tears, willing them to stop falling. Janus didn’t know if he should find this cute or disgusting, so he settled on a healthy medium and tore his eyes away to look at his own boyfriend. 

It was Remus’ expression that sent a jolt of shock down Janus’ spine. It was like Janus had caught the taller boy in the middle of an epiphany. His eyes glazed over as he stared at his twin and their friend. 

“Shit.” Remus whispered. 

“What?” Janus asked him. 

Remus turned to Janus and blinked a few times as he seemed to come back to real life. He shook his head to say nothing and grabbed Janus’ hand. Janus felt a familiar feeling of frustration as he searched Remus’ face for answers. It had been so long since Janus had been unable to understand Remus, and he was beginning to think he was getting better at it, but now as he looked at Remus’ teary-eyed expression he knew he had so much more to learn. A bit of deja vu hit Janus as he realized he hadn’t felt so helpless to know what Remus was thinking since the last time he’d sat in the McDonald’s bathroom the day he became a Power Ranger. 

_ I’m gonna marry you. _ Janus’ mind insisted.  _ Goddammit Remus Reeves I’m going to marry you if it’s the last fucking thing I do. _

“C’mon you two.” Janus started once he felt another cold brush of wind hit his neck in just the wrong place. “Let’s get back inside.”

Roman and Virgil nodded and let each other go, though neither seemed to want to go too far. Remus led the way downstairs and back to their rooms. Inside Renette was waiting rather impatiently, but all of that animosity melted away the second Virgil let go of Roman’s hand to wrap their arms around her. 

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” Renette said, trying to be stern but her wavering voice didn’t help. 

“I won’t.” Virgil told her. “I promise.”

“Why didn’t you take your phone?”

“My arms they-” Virgil stopped. 

The door swung open to reveal everyone else who practically tackled Virgil in hugs. Janus stood idly by and watched, trying to understand what the hell he’d seen and what the hell was going. 

“Virgil oh my god.” Patton wheezed as he hugged Virgil closely. “You had me so worried. I love you so much.”

“Love you too Pat.” Virgil laughed a little. Patton pulled back suddenly. 

“Don’t you ever do anything like that again you hear me?!” Patton shook them by their shoulders. 

“I do.” Virgil nodded. “I won't, I promise.”

“Good.” Patton pulled them back in for another hug. 

“Logan,” Janus called over to him. Logan made his way to Janus and the twins. “What was it you needed to talk about?”

Logan had a little internal debate with himself before turning to the three of them. “When we went to rescue Patton from the Dragon Witch, I decided to take a look around. You guys seemed to have everything handled and, I’d heard some voices so I decided to follow them. What I found was a room of generals. Not just the ones we’ve fought but there were some from decades ago, and some that I’ve never seen before. And they were-well I could only assume they were talking about Virgil. Apparently Virgil is supposed to have symptoms.”

“For what? Are they sick?” Roman asked. 

“I don’t know. It’s a little hard to remember considering less than an hour after hearing this I was unconscious, but apparently headaches and arm pain are just the first wave of what Virgil’s going to go through.” Logan tried to explain. “I’ve wanted to ask them about it but, I was hesitant to say the least. Especially considering the generals seemed to think that if Virgil didn’t go through this they’d be killed.”

“Have you told Renette any of this?” Janus asked, lowering his volume. 

“Yes.” Logan nodded. “I’m just, well, apparently a lot worse stuff is going to happen. And I’m not sure if Virgil knows what they’re going through, or if they’re ready.”

“What’s supposed to happen to them?” Remus asked fervently. 

“Heart palpitations, their ribs will crack-”

“Alright.” Patton stepped back and began addressing the room. “It’s time to show Virgil the hard drive.”

“What?” Thomas asked. 

“Patton-” Renette looked at him worriedly. 

Emile and Remy both seemed very confused. 

“Look, Virge needs to trust us. All of us. And keeping this from them just gives them reason not to.” Patton said firmly. “Besides, Virgil has a right to see it. Whatever it is. It’s not fair for us to decide when they get to. That should be up to them.”

“Pat, what are you talking about?” Virgil asked calmly.

“He’s talking about this.” Roman had gone over to the closet in their room and was digging through one of his bags before producing the black hard drive like object. 

“When you came to Earth, we found this in the bag you were trying to give to Patton and Patton didn’t recognize it.” Renette explained to Virgil. “We didn’t know what it was but after a little bit of tampering with it, the box said that we weren’t Virgil and therefore didn’t have access to its contents.”

Virgil was quiet. They stared at the box as Roman brought it over. 

“This? This was in my bag?” Virgil asked quietly. Not taking it from Roman, just staring at it with a look of apprehension. 

“It was.” Renette nodded. 

“Not Virgilius.” The box suddenly spoke robotically. “Access denied.”

“I didn’t press anything!” Roman immediately defended. 

“It’s okay Roman.” Virgil waved him off. 

“Virge what-what is it?” Emile asked. 

“Sorry, blind person here, what exactly is happening?” Remy raised his hand and asked. 

“You two should go.” Thomas told them. 

“What?”

“Dad!”

“Thomas is right.” Renette said. “This is officially Power Rangers business and thus you two are not involved.” 

“Mom c’mon.” Remy groaned. 

“Both of you will come with me.” Renette stated. Her tone left no room for argument. “Thomas, report to me about this once your conversation is done.”

“Of course.” Thomas gave her a sharp nod. 

Despite Emile and Remy’s protests Renette pushed them both out of the door and shut it swiftly. Leaving the rest of them in silence. Everyone turned to Virgil. Their eyes still not leaving the box. Finally Virgil walked over to Roman and grabbed the sides of the box. They walked over to the desk in the room and put the box down, sitting in the wheely chair and continuing to stare at it. 

TV

“Virgilius.” The box spoke in the same monotonous robot tone. “Access granted.”

Out of the top a hologram was produced, similar to some Tony Stark type of creation. It looked like a computer desktop. But it only had one folder on the screen. 

“Virge.” Patton whispered. The group had made their way over and were looking at the screen with them. 

“It’s a paradot.” Virgil told the Power Rangers. “Essentially just an old computer. They haven’t been used since I was a baby. This one is almost as old as me. It-it’s been so long since I’ve seen one of these.”

Their eyes flicked over to the file on the screen and it was selected, a new screen appeared. This one seemed to be a sort of library. Three images appeared and below each respective image was the text:  _ WatchFirst.log, ForVOnly.log, ☆♡.note _ . 

“They’re videos.” Virgil said. 

“What are these pictures of?” Logan asked. 

“I-the first one is the inside of my room. Well, not-uhm, my used to be room, on the ship.” Virgil said. “But, it looks like the way my room was arranged when I was a baby.”

“That second one looks like a field of flowers.” Roman said softly. 

“I don’t recognize the second or third pictures.” Virgil told him. Virgil’s eyes centered on the first image. “I guess we start here.”

The video was selected and the image of Virgil’s childhood bedroom filled the screen. White walls, white furniture, and yet, it wasn’t as harsh as Janus remembered. The room seemed soft and comforting, and it was decorated delicately with paintings that seemed a little too familiar to Janus. 

“Is that The Starry Night by Van Gogh?” Logan whispered. 

“We’ll come back to that.” Patton whispered back.

“Is it working?” A voice asked from the box. 

“It is.” Another answered. 

“Okay.” A woman walked in front of whatever camera was being used and a gasp went through the room. She looked just like Virgil. Janus would go as far as saying they were twins if she didn’t seem older than Virgil. “Hello my Star. And, the friends you’ve gathered around you.”

Virgil’s entire face practically read ‘who are you?’ as he stared at the woman before him. 

“I know you don’t know who I am.” She said softly, a choked up sadness in her voice. “And I know because of that you don’t trust me, but I’m asking you to hear me out. Please. You have a right to know who you are.”

The atmosphere in the room shifted again. Janus was glancing between Virgil, the others, and the screen. The woman took a deep breath, smiled, then looked at the camera with a determined face. 

“My name is Hypatia, I’m your sister.” She said. “And you, Virgil, are a Seer.”

The video stopped. Virgil stared at it with intent and the screen froze.

“What’s a Seer?” Thomas said after a moment. 

“Seers were an ancient race of, well, demigods. At least that’s how they were treated.” Virgil said, they seemed rather emotionless. “They were said to have been the children of the goddess Nonrath. They could do things-weird things. But, they were hunted to extinction. Their abilities were too-too powerful. They couldn’t be controlled and they had to be killed.”

Janus had a feeling that those words weren’t entirely Virgil’s. 

“I’m not a Seer.” Virgil said sternly. “And she-she’s not my-” Virgil stopped. They turned over to the screen and stared at the woman angrily. It began playing again. 

“She’s been lying to you Virgil.” Hypatia said. “I-I know you know that. You know that she’s been lying to you about Earth, and the Power Rangers, but she’s lied to you about this too. She’s not your mother! Our mother was, ugh.” She stalled, looking at someone off camera. “Okay, our mother, she was stationed on this planet called Orgrer by the Dragon Witch. She-she used to have hundreds of Seers working for her, she’d send them to planets, have them observe, report back. Any time she did something on a planet, she changed that planet's future, and the Seers would tell her what to do next in order to take over. But our mother-she made a mistake. She got pregnant eighteen years ago, and-and had me, but the thing is, my- _ our _ father wasn’t another Seer. He was Orgerian! When the Dragon Witch found out she took me from our mother and told her that since she belonged to the Dragon Witch, so did I. So to retaliate our mother started feeding the Dragon Witch false information. And started the worst rebellion that the Dragon Witch has ever seen!

“Of course, by the time the Dragon Witch had captured our parents I was showing signs beyond anything the Seers had seen before. I was only fourteen Virge and I could already see so many futures. Ov-over the next four years though, she slaughtered every seer she could find. Not just the ones she’d forced to work in her guard, but any Seer society she could find. I don’t know what she told you about Seers but whatever she said was a lie! 

But the Dragon Witch, she doesn’t learn from her mistakes.” Hypatia looked over again at someone in the room that the group couldn’t see. “She’d been training me like a general, and when I was fifteen I was sent to my third planet. I had to scout around, send a report back, and then send a message to the people that live there that they had a chance to surrender. Instead, I met Pallas. And she showed me things that I’d never seen before, she showed me a life that I didn’t even know I wanted. God Virgil, I can’t wait for you to fall in love.”

Hypatia’s eyes began to glow a little and purple orbs began sprouting around her. It was so similar to Virgil from earlier Janus couldn’t hold back the small noise he made. Remus shared a look with him. 

“Patia?” The same second voice from before asked. 

“Sorry.” Hypatia blinked and the lights faded away. “I just-ha. Ha ha. Okay. I started stalling. I started doing everything I could to keep this beautiful planet alive. Pallas and I-we did everything we could to get this planet ready for a fight. Then, after a few years you were born. And you’re so-gods Virgil. The Dragon Witch, she gave you to me and told me to make sure you were the most powerful Seer the universe has ever known. That terrified me. But what scared me more was when she came to me, and she told me that I was finally old enough to be the holder of the Rose morpher. She wanted me to take it, and be powerful like her. To take the morpher and finally wipe out the planet that I’d been protecting. And she told me when you were of age you’d be getting the violet morpher. We’d be unstoppable. 

“But I couldn’t. I told her I didn’t want it. But then she stopped making it seem like a suggestion and I knew what I had to do. The Generals are going to help us. Astro and Jemina and-they’re getting us out of here. I’m leaving the Dragon Witch and I’m taking these morphers as far away as possible. Anywhere out of her reach. She can never have them. She can never wear them or put them on us.”

“Hypatia.” A third voice spoke up. There was a silent exchange between Virgil’s sister and the people off screen. 

“I don’t have a lot of time Star. I had to say something to you, I owe you that much. Attached to this paradot are a few other videos. And there should be a text file somewhere too. A letter for you to read when you need it. You-you’ll know when. But listen to me, I love you, I love you so much Virgil. These past few months that I’ve been able to spend with you, they’ve been refreshing to say the least. And it hurts me so much to have to leave you behind.”

Virgil sucked in a breath and nodded, as if their question was finally getting answered. 

“I-I’m sorry, I just, I had to know. When we knew that we had to go into hiding, I had to know what I should do with you. What my decision could do to you. And as much as I want to take you, with me, as much as it pains me to know what she’ll do to you, and that I can stop that from happening, I-I can’t. I can’t bring you with me. I’ve seen what you will do, how far you’ll go, with-without me. And no matter how much I want to have you with me, it would be wrong of me to be selfish now. I don’t want to leave you behind. But if I take you, this will never end. With our rebellion called off the Violet and Rose morphers revealed there’s not much else Pallas and I can do but run. I just hope,” She took a shaky breath and finally wiped away the tears that had been slowly falling. “I just hope my Star, that one day you can forgive me for leaving you there.”

“Hypatia it’s time.” The second voice said. 

Hypatia’s head dropped. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed to herself. Another person stepped into view. A different woman, taller and more muscly than Hypatia, but wearing similar clothing. She wrapped Virgil’s sister in a hug and let her cry for a moment more before saying something in a language Janus didn’t recognize. Hypatia gave her a short laugh before wiping at her face with her palms and standing, walking over to the camera and giving it one last smile before shutting it off. 

The video ended. Virgil sat there, so still Janus was worried they’d been petrified. 

“Virgil,” Patton whispered. “Virge, are-are you okay?”

Virgil didn’t say anything, just shook their head ‘no’ and rubbed at their face. They hadn’t shed any tears however. Roman left the group after another second and returned with Bev, the purple triceratops. Virgil took the stuffed animal graciously and hugged it close to themself. They flicked their eyes across the screen yet again and the video went away, they were back at the page of three images. Virgil took a shuddering breath before standing up and turning to the group. 

“Seers are able to see into the future.” Virgil said forcibly. “They can see all the possible paths that a person or even a planet might be able to live. They can create light when they need it most. Seers are only supposed to have children with other Seers because they’re cursed.” Virgil sounded like they were pushing this information out almost unwillingly. “They’re resigned to a fate worse than death. I-I just don't know what. My-hmm, the Dragon Witch-”

Virgil stopped. 

“Virgey?” Patton wanted to reach a hand over to Virgil’s shoulder but he stopped himself. 

“Can I have that Monster Energy now?” Virgil asked Remus desperately. 

Remus nodded and left the room quickly. 

“It’s like one am is that really a good-” Logan was interrupted when Remus returned with the already open purple monster energy and he handed it to Virgil. 

Virgil practically chugged it. “Shit this is a lot.” 

“It is.” Thomas nodded. “You-you should take a break.”

Virgil wasn’t listening, they sat back down, handed the mostly empty monster energy to Roman, and stared at the file labeled  _ ForVOnly.log  _ until it opened. The screen showed a field. Green and flowing an idyllic blue sky behind it and purple flowers smattering the ground like a painting. The camera started moving, like someone was walking while carrying it. 

“Okay, I think I’ve got it working now.” Hypatia’s voice said, the underlying sadness in her tone was gone from when Janus had last heard her speak. 

“You should really learn how to use that thing!” A far off but familiar voice called. 

“Oh I’m sorry Pallas we can’t all be perfect like you!” Hypatia called back. 

“I never said I was perfect Love.” Pallas’ voice was getting closer. 

“Mmm but it was implied.” Hypatia giggled. 

“So, how much longer?” Pallas asked. The camera was now facing only the sky. 

“Not much I don’t think.” Hypatia told her. “Oh look, there!”

A breach, not unlike the ones that produced the monsters the Power Rangers had been fighting appeared. The two women ran to it, the camera almost dropping once or twice. Then a familiar face appeared out of the breach, Astromania. Her color scheme the same as when the Rangers had fought her first. With her was another general, this one Janus didn’t recognize. But she held a little bundle in her arms. 

“Hypatia!” The second general said with glee. 

“Jemina!” Hypatia laughed. “Astro.”

“It’s good to see you.” Astromania said sweetly. 

“It’s good to see you too. Even for this short time.” Hypatia agreed.

“I wish it was for longer.” Jemina admitted, walking off screen and coming back bundle-less. 

“So do I.” Hypatia responded. “Is there any news though?”

“No, her efforts are still mostly focused on that Earth planet. She hasn’t said anything about you two.” Astromania stated. “Now, it’s time for us to go. We’ll tell the others you’re well. What should we bring on our next visit?”

“Any information you can about Earth.” Hypatia said quickly. “And some of Virgil’s things. Toys and such.”

“Got it.” Jemina nodded. She walked over and gave Hypatia a hug with Astromania. When she pulled away she gave a look off camera and a little wave. “Goodbye Virgil.”

Astromania reached over and grasped Jemina’s hand, pulling her through the breach, both looking back and waving with smiles. 

“Why’d you ask about Earth?” Pallas asked once the two and their breach were gone. 

“I’ll tell you later.” Hypatia said. She panned the camera around and Janus got a good view of Pallas, her skin was a dark dark pink and her hair was sleek black and done in braids. The tall and muscular woman held this bundle of blankets in her arms almost comically softly. “Right now, we have a Star to attend to.”

Pallas laughed and looked down, swirling a finger above the blankets and cooing at what Janus had guessed was baby Virgil inside. 

The screen’s image changed. Cut away like some YouTube channel edited together. Now they were inside a building, it looked like a kitchen. Pallas stepped back from the camera and smiled before calling Hypatia’s name. The woman walked in, holding the baby against her chest, Virgil’s head resting on her shoulder as she gave Pallas a sweet kiss and inspected whatever she was cooking off screen. 

“Smells amazing Love.” Hypatia said. 

“I’d hope so.” Pallas snickered. She leaned over to the camera and gave it a smug smile. “Your sister doesn’t always trust my cooking. You accidentally poison her once and suddenly nothing you make can be trusted. I always have to take the first bite.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Pallas gave the camera another smirk before backing off again. 

“That’s the door!” Hypatia called. 

“I’ve got it.” Pallas walked away. Some greetings and cheers could be heard before Pallas and more pink-skinned people returned. 

“Where’s the baby?!” One of them asked. 

“Calm down Danaë.” A lighter one chastised. 

“Pallas it smells amazing in here.” A third said. 

“I brought bread!!” The final one shouted. The group laughed. 

“You’re here!” Hypatia suddenly returned, Virgil still on her hip. 

“Hypatia!” 

“Oh there’s the babe.” 

The group continued to chatter before Pallas called them to a bit of order and everyone sat down around the table. Hypatia laid Virgil in a crib beside the table and her and Pallas began serving the food around. The others passed dishes of food amongst each other and one left before returning with drinks for the whole group.

“Okay, before we begin, let’s do some introductions.” Pallas said, walking over to the camera and grabbing it, turning it around to the group. 

“For Virgil?”

“Mhm.”

“This is the family.,” Pallas pointed the camera at one of the women, her skin was closer to a bubble gum color than anything else and she smiled at the camera. “Meet Hemithea, she’s the sort of mother of our group. She takes care of us well.” It was quiet for a beat. “Would you like to say anything?”

“Oh! Uhm sure!” Hemithea ran a hand through her silvery hair before looking up to the camera. “I can’t wait to meet you someday Virgil.”

Pallas panned over to the next person. “This is Iolaus. He’s a sweetheart. No matter what he tries to tell you.” The man gave an exacerbated look before smiling at the camera similarly to Hemithea.

“I hope you take after your sister Virgil, she’s much nicer than Pallas.” He said. 

“Rude.” Pallas reached a hand forward and shoved at his face. 

“Okay okay my turn to say something to Virgil!” The next person said. Pallas laughed and indulged her. 

“Virgil this is Danaë and she has not shut up about you since Hypatia told us you were born.” Pallas said. 

“I’ve always wanted to see a Seer baby!” She said. “The myths were right, you have the prettiest of eyes. Even though they won’t last.”

“Alright, can we put the camera down and just eat?” Hemithea asked. 

“I’m getting hungryyyyyy.” Hypatia whined. 

“Okay okay.” Pallas laughed.

The screen cut away again. 

This time someone else was holding the camera. Judging by the finger that obscured a bit of the corner Danaë was holding it. She pointed the camera down and the group now saw the top of Iolaus’ head and their first look at little baby Virgil. They were probably only a few months old guessing by how small they were, their hair was still as unruly and dark as it was now though. Janus couldn’t help the little ‘aww’ that came out of his mouth. 

“You’re probably the best behaved baby I’ve ever known.” Iolaus muttered. “I have to wonder if you have any voice at all. I’ve never heard a peep from you.”

“Virgil’s just happy here with us.” Danaë said. 

“Any news?” A panicked sounding Hypatia asked to the right of the camera. 

“No I’m afraid not.” Hemithea said. 

“Oh Pallas.” Hypatia sighed. 

Danaë pointed the camera up to show Hypatia pacing across the kitchen floor. Hemithea closing the door behind her. 

“Pallas is gonna be alright.” Danaë said. “She’s like the most badass woman ever.”

“Pallas has her limits.” Hypatia pulled her arms up around her body. “She-she-”

“She’s here!” Iolaus said suddenly, hopping up from his seat and pulling Virgil closer to him. 

“What?!” Hypatia practically shouted with hope. 

“Look!” He pointed out the window and Danaë ran to it with the camera, pointing it out at a familiar field. She zoomed the lens in and far off a figure was starting to emerge. 

“Pallas!” Hypatia screeched and ran out of the door. Hemithea wasn’t far behind her and Danaë followed the two. The sounds of running footsteps and crushed weeds were soft compared to the wind that whipped by. 

Danaë stopped running and pointed the camera forward, in front of her Hypatia still ran until she had jumped into Pallas’ arms. Her tan arms wrapped around Pallas’ neck as the two held each other. Danaë turned the camera around to her face and she smiled giddily before turning it back again. 

“You know Virgil, Hypatia was changed the day she met Pallas. I didn’t know her before, but I know she wasn’t like this. She’ll tell you that love is what changed her, and that she can’t wait for love to change you too.” Danaë spoke quietly. “But the truth is, Hypatia was changed, because she wanted to be. It wasn’t just Pallas, it wasn’t us, it was her. She did it. She’s still doing it.”

“Love helped her along the way.” Iolaus said beside Danaë who faced the camera to him and Virgil. “But her growth has been all hers.”

“I hope we get to see you grow.” Danaë said to the little baby in Iolaus’ arms. 

The screen cut away from the bright field. This time it was dark. The home the camera was being walked around in was the same as before, but it seemed like a different part of it. 

“Hypatia?” Pallas asked the dark hallway. She arrived outside a door and pushed it open.

Inside purple orbs were scattered along the ceiling lighting the room in a comforting glow. Janus could see Hypatia sitting on her knees, little lights flickering across her fingers, and baby Virgil laid on the rug, looking up at the purple light with an innocent expression. 

“Shh.” Hypatia said, looking up at Pallas and smiling, her eyes a little watery. “Virgil likes the quiet.” 

Pallas walked over to the two, she sat across from Hypatia, baby Virgil and their sister both in frame as she reached a hand over to cradle Hypatia’s face. The woman leaned into her touch and formed a little orb in her hands, letting the baby reach up and grab at it, a little baby smile on their face. Then Hypatia began to hum. It was soft, almost too quiet for the audio to pick up, but Virgil heard it. And in the chair Virgil let themself cry for the second time that night. They put a hand to their mouth and tried to muffle their own sounds so they could hear her humming better. On the screen little baby Virgil opened their mouth and started making little noises. If Janus didn’t know better he’d say that baby Virge was trying to sing along. 

When the shot changed again Virgil stopped the video. The Power Rangers stepped away as Virgil got up again, their hand still covered their mouth and they started wiping at their tears again. Virgil turned around to the group, their tear stained face looked ready to start crying again at any moment. When Virgil stretched their arms out no one wasted time, enveloping them in a group hug. Letting Virgil cry in the comfort of their arms.

  
  



	35. Eddie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang spends some more down time with each other in their last day in NYC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Remus centric, more dukeceit fluff, ugh I just love their ship, a dog, Virgil and Roman being chaotic together, restaurants and movies and just some general found family shit that I love
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing, kidnapping(sort of lol), stealing, mentions of cigarettes, use of the f-slur(but it’s once and it’s lighhearted and not directed toward anyone), let me know if I missed anything

Remus couldn’t fall asleep, and he loved sleep! Sleep was what kept him sane! Sleep was what Remus did when he needed a break. He would hit his pillow every night and be out for hours. Dreaming of things only crazy people on LSD could imagine. It was a comfort that he cherished every night. Now though, Remus couldn’t fall asleep for the life of him. It had been so easy in the past. So simple. Just put your head down on a pillow and turn your brain off, then boom, asleep! Now though, no matter what he tried, nothing worked. He put his headphones in and tried to listen to music, he’d put on a comforting YouTube video, he’d imagined himself as a night guard in a Freddy Fazzbear’s pizzeria. Everything! Nothing was working. 

He’d eventually decided to just sit in the bed and watch cartoons on the hotel tv. He’d kept the lights off and waited patiently for Janus to come back. He was a little peeved when Janus said he was going to get some Starbucks and then left without letting Remus get a word in, but he knew his boyfriend needed some time. They were all gonna deal with this differently and Janus’ way of going about it was apparently leaving to get Starbucks. After Remus had watched four episodes of Amazing World of Gumball and one rerun of Regular Show he realized Janus had been gone longer than it would take someone to get Starbucks. Remus figured he’d text Janus just to make sure. 

**2:25 am**

**Hey**

**u gud**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**Yep**

**ill b back soon**

Immediate reply. Remus shrugged and put his phone back down. At least he knows Janus isn’t dead. Remus sighed and turned back to the tv. Laughing every now and then at the cartoon and wondering if he should get up and get some food. 

“Hey.” Janus said as the door clicked open. “I’m back.”

Remus looked over to him. Janus held a drink carrier that carried two drinks, one pink and swirly, and the other green and kind of gross looking. Around his arm though a few bags hung, all had Target’s red logo plastered onto them. 

“You went to Target?”

“Well,” Janus huffed and handed the green drink to Remus. “The nearest Starbucks was inside the Target so I figured, I’m there and I may as well do some shopping. I’m just like my mom that way. Whenever she gets upset about something she online shops. It’s why she has more jewelry and shoes than the queen of england.”

Remus watched Janus, the drink was cold in his hand and watery. He was hesitant to drink it. Janus moved around, setting the bags down by the side of the bed and going through them. He pulled out a few things, hair tyes, hair clips with little fruits on them, a pack of cigarettes that he definitely stole, lipsticks, nail polish, a pack of chocolates, and then, in the second bag Janus pulled out a box that was wrapped in red christmas wrapping. 

“Jan, Christmas was like, a week ago.” Remus said. 

“I know.” Janus smiled, though it seemed a little strained. “I just saw this and figured you could use it. Also I know you like unwrapping stuff so I just had one of the ladies wrap it for me.”

Remus pulled it onto his lap and stared at it for a second before he started tearing at the paper. 

“A space heater?” Remus’ voice broke as he realized what it was. His eyes started to water as he frantically tried opening the box. 

“I know it’s not like the one you have in your room, but uhm, I figured you might like it.” Janus told him. “I also got you a monster but you can have that in the morning.” 

Remus didn’t want to speak. He knew that if he did he might start sobbing, and if Remus was being honest with himself he didn’t think he deserved to cry. Janus didn’t seem to care what Remus thought he deserved however and hugged him around the waist, pushing Remus’ head against his chest. Remus knew what Janus was doing. He’d done it before, but always when they were in public and never for this long. Janus was hiding Remus’ face in his chest, not allowing anyone to look him in the eye, not even himself. Giving Remus a moment to let his guard down, to be insecure with no judgment. Remus didn’t think he deserved it still, but if Janus was telling him to be selfish, who was he to say no. 

When Remus was finally able to sleep he did so with his arms wrapped around the heater, listening to the white noise of its buzzing and the water running from Janus’ shower. He dreamed of vaguely humanoid shapes moving about the stars. Remus woke up a little when he felt a warm hand push at the hair that had fallen across his forehead and then wrap around his waist, flowers filled his mind. It was all so familiar and so easy to fall back asleep to. 

When Remus fully woke up again his eyes were met with the bright hotel room. His heater was on the floor and turned on low, and the bed was empty save for him. The room faintly smelled of cigarettes and flowers and Remus liked it. The tv was on, again Cartoon Network, and then Janus came into view. He didn’t say anything, just smiled-it wasn’t as forced as the night before-and softly pushed at Remus’ bangs again. When Janus cupped Remus’ cheek his eyes got soft and watery. Remus turned and gave Janus’ palm a soft kiss before lightly chomping down on Janus’ thumb. Janus’ sweet laughter filled the room and he put his forehead against Remus’ before getting back up again and moving about the room. 

Remus figured he should get up at this point and he shuffled over to his suitcase and started digging through it. After finding black leggings, ripped jeans, and a handmade sheer shirt to wear Remus decided to drag himself over to Roman’s room and rummage through his clothes in order to find something more to wear. 

He knocked on the door, giving a passing family a dirty look as they looked at him in his pajamas. Roman opened the door, sporting bright pajama shorts, a long sleeve shirt, and an annoyed look. 

“What?” Roman asked, his voice scratchy from sleep. 

“I need clothes.” Remus said pushing past him and going for his suitcase across the room. 

“Why didn’t you pack any?” Roman asked sarcastically, shutting the door behind him. 

“I did. Just don’t wanna wear all of them right now. I need something else.” Remus stated, digging through the myriad of shirts. “Something bright.”

“You’re the worst.” Roman groaned.

Now that the two were quiet Remus could hear the faint sounds of talking behind him. 

“Love helped her along the way. But her growth has been all hers.”

“I hope we get to see you grow.”

Quiet. 

“Hypatia?”

Quiet again. 

“Shh. Virgil likes the quiet.”

There was that humming again. Soft humming, so quiet Remus almost didn’t hear it. But then the little baby started babbling. Remus had recognized it immediately. When Remus found a bright blue button up that was covered in white clouds-another piece made by Remus-he figured his search was complete and turned around. Roman had made himself comfortable next to Virgil and was leaning on their shoulder as he played a mobile game. Virgil’s face was lit up by the hologram screen, they didn’t show much emotion as they watched the scenes unfold. The light from the paradot was the only light in the room. 

“C’mon Thea!!” 

“Don’t be a bitch, sing with us!”

“Fine fine! Just don’t call me a bitch.”

“Sorry. . . . Asshat.”

There was some laughing. 

Then the singing began. It was a lively song, and it wasn’t a language Remus recognized. Remus left quickly after this, figuring he was intruding on something. Remus went over and knocked on his room’s door and Janus opened it letting him inside. Remus got his clothes on and makeup set quickly before joining Janus back on the bed and continuing to watch morning cartoons. 

“Text from Renette.” Janus said as a buzzing caused him to pick up his phone. “She said we aren’t needed until tonight so today’s another free day. Until like six or whenever the New Years show starts.”

“Mm.” Remus acknowledged. 

“What do you wanna do?” Janus asked. 

“Ask the group chat.” Remus suggested. “We should all hang out today.”

“Sounds good.”

**💖✨GO GO Power Faggots✨💖**

**8:32 am**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**We should all hang out today**

**Wat u guys wanna do?**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**Sounds good to me!**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**We should go see an art gallery.**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**I’d be down for that**

**But like not all day**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**Do I need fancy clothes for an art gallery?**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**We should go shopping !!**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**We’ve been shopping practically the entire trip.**

**I lik shoping**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**k**

**So art gallery, shopping**

**Any other ideas**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Virgil says we should go see a movie**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**I’d love that!**

**Kk movies**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**Going to see a movie is a great idea.**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Virgil also says we should take a nap**

**Forever**

**A forever nap?**

**Tf is that?**

**Oh.**

**Ghsilfnklsajfsjfalj**

**LMAO ROMAN DUM**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Virge is laughing at me**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**You sad stupid boy**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**So stupid yet so pretty**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Their laugh is nice**

**Very cute**

**They’re still laughing at me but i don’t care**

**I like their smile**

**Wait did y’all know Virgil has dimples??**

**OH MY GOD Virgil has dimples**

**They’re so cute**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**Roman we can all see this.**

**Also Virgil is on this group chat.**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**pfffft -**

**SIMP**

**SIMP**

**fuckin loser**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**SHUT UP**

**HOW DO YOU DELETE MESSAGES**

**AND MEMORIES**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**Nope**

**Never gonna forget**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**This is your mistake. Live with it.**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**How do you not know how to delete messages?**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**U did this 2 urself man**

**Learn how to use a phone**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**F ME**

**C’mon guys !!**

**nah**

**im not Virgiiiiilllll~**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Oh mY GOD YOU BITCH**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**AHAHAHAHAHAHA**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**Guys**

**Please**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**Patton shut up you’re laughing so hard right now.**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**RUDE**

**Babe💋💜🐺⋆⭑☆⭐★⋆⭒:**

**Can we get food??**

**🐍💖🍑🍆💖Jan 💖🍆🍑💖🐍:**

**Yeah**

**Pinkie Pie😍🐆:**

**Course Virge!**

**food time**

**Pinkie Pie’s Bitch😒🦖:**

**Getting food is a good idea.**

**Ugly Lmao Haha😱🐓:**

**Yeah im hungry**

And with that vague plan set Janus and Remus packed up a little bag and headed out to meet the others in the hall. Virgil and Roman stood there already, both on their phones and both dressed in almost matching outfits. Remus somewhat expected that really. Janus said good morning to the two and they started discussing places to get breakfast while waiting for the last two. 

“Oh, and,” Roman dropped his voice to an almost whisper. “At some point we should find an excuse to get Pat and Logan alone.”

“Huh?” Virgil looked at Roman confused. 

“Well obviously the bed thing I did hasn’t worked out too well so I wanna push them a little farther.” Roman said. “Ooo! Can you two talk about kissing at midnight?”

“Ew.” Janus grunted. 

“Why?” Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Well, Patton’s like a romantic right? He’ll probably want to kiss Lo at midnight and Logan won’t exactly say no.” Roman posited. “Ergo, if you two bring it up then maybe they’ll talk about it then they’ll kiss then they start dating then I can live happy knowing they’re in love forever.”

“What the hell is ‘kissing at midnight’?” Virgil asked. 

“It’s just a tradition. On New Years couples will kiss at midnight.” Janus explained. 

“Okay.” Virgil got a weird look on their face. “Humans are gross.”

Finally Patton and Logan’s door opened and the two walked out. Looking a little less put together than Remus would have thought. He clearly wasn’t the only one to notice cause Janus gave them both a look that Remus could only assume was his ‘did you two seriously make out’ look and Roman and Virgil both just seemed confused. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Patton said quickly. “I had a lot of trouble finding my glasses.”

Remus shrugged, knowing that wasn’t the whole truth but whatever, if Patton was lying it was for good reason. They all made their way to the elevators and down to the lobby, wrapped in coats and hats and mittens, prepared for the harsh cold New York City weather. 

“So where are we thinking of going first?” Patton asked cheerily.

“Food!” Roman replied.

“Food!” Virgil echoed.

“Okay.” Patton said with a chuckle.

“Ooo, we should go to this place my moms take me to.” Janus said.

“Ugh yes, if Kennedy and Eloise say it’s good, then there’s no way I can turn that down.” Remus stated.

“Alright, where is this place?” Logan asked, pulling out his phone.

“Oh uh, where are we?” Janus looked around. “31st and 12th, we need to head to-okay! Right of us two blocks and up four.” 

“Well let’s get going!” Patton started heading off.

“Ugh you’re so smart.” Remus murmured to his boyfriend.

“Aw Babe you flatter me.” Janus patted Remus’ beanie covered head. “But that was simple math.”

“I couldn’t do it.” Remus said honestly.

“Well that’s not saying much.”

“You bitch.” Remus crossed his arms and gave a mock pout. 

Janus laughed sweetly yet again. Remus put his hand down for Janus to hold, who gladly slipped his hand inside Remus’ glove. The walk continued on for a while, Remus and Janus pointing things out to each other and snickering about the people they passed. Patton and Logan leading their way, close to each other ‘for comfort’ and giggling about something only the two understood. Roman and Virgil on the other hand part danced and part skipped as they shared headphones, listening to whatever. Remus felt a little something in his stomach curl as he watched them. He didn’t know what it was really, but he didn’t know a lot about his feelings so this was nothing new. 

“Ooh, so I heard about this place where you can go, and basically just destroy stuff.” Janus said. “I forget what it’s called but it looked so fun. We just go into a room with some safety goggles and smash plates and whatever.”

“That sounds like a dream.” Remus mused. 

“Yeah I was thinking maybe if there’s a place like that open or-oh! Guys this is the place!” Janus stopped everyone in front of the restaurant. 

Once inside the warm building they were seated quickly and left with menus in a rather secluded area of the restaurant. It wasn’t too busy and smelled amazing, Remus immediately knew why Janus’ mothers would love a place like this. 

“Here Logan.” Patton reached over and plucked Logan’s glasses off his face to wipe away the fog with his shirt. 

“Thanks.” Logan smiled a little at the action. 

Remus turned to Janus to see him giving a pointed look at the two. Remus and Janus shared yet another silent conversation. Logan made a small pained sound before covering his mouth. 

“You good?” Roman asked, not all that concerned. 

“Yeah,” Logan replied. “I just bit my lip.”

“Aw.” Patton turned to his left and placed Logan’s glasses back on his face. “Want me to kiss it better?”

Remus physically felt his jaw drop a little. Janus gave them both a very amused, yet confused look, Roman choked on his own spit, and Virgil had no care for what was happening, instead burying themself in the menu. 

“I-I-” Logan stuttered. 

Patton laughed a little and ruffled Logan’s hair before getting up from the table. “You’re so cute. I’m gonna go wash my hands.” 

“Oh, I’ll go with.” Virgil said, still unbothered. 

When the two were out of ear shot Logan let out a shrill squeak and curled in on himself before clearing his throat, looking down at the menu, and muttering a small “I’m okay.”

This time Remus, Janus, and Roman all had a little conversation telepathically about what in the world had just happened. Remus settled on ordering whatever Janus would recommend and a coke before getting his phone out and scrolling through it absently. When Virgil and Patton returned a waitress came over and took their drink orders. Remus then decided he better start checking movie times and found a good one for the new Wonder Woman movie a few hours from then. He told Janus who agreed that would be good and the two purchased tickets for the group online. 

The rest of their meal was spent eating delicious pastas and sandwiches while giving Virgil a confusing summary of the last Wonder Woman movie and then the history of DC. Remus could tell that Virgil was not understanding any of it, but they didn’t say anything so there wasn’t much Remus could do. After the twins so graciously paid for their meal using a credit card Remus had swiped from their mom they left the restaurant in search of something to do in the hour and a half before their movie. 

“Shopping!!” Roman said excitedly. “C’mon we’re right by a shopping center let’s look around!”

“Ohh I am kinda looking for some eyeshadow brushes.” Janus said. 

Virgil nodded in agreement. 

“Then it’s settled. We’re going shopping!” Roman walked away leaving no room for protest. 

Remus and Janus followed him quickly and the group naturally split off from each other. Remus and Janus went off to find a beauty store while Roman and Virgil went on the hunt for cool looking hair clips, and Patton and Logan went off to find whatever nerd stuff they wanted. Throughout the next hour the group had split and regrouped in so many ways. After getting Janus’ brushes they ran into Roman and Virgil who joined them to a shoe place, when Virgil and Janus left the twins to find coats, then the twins found Patton and Logan and brought them along to look at more shoes, only to run into Janus and Virgil again while leaving the second shoe store. This time Remus and Logan went to a video game shop while Patton and Janus ran off to look at some arts and crafts store that the two would meet them at. Roman and Virgil practically disappeared but it wasn’t much of a worry, they’d turn up in time to catch Wonder Woman ‘84. 

When Remus and Logan finally ended their heated debate over Five Nights At Freddy’s lore they caught up to Patton and Janus who were admiring all of the different yarns. Janus wordlessly shoved a bag into Remus’ arms. He opened it to find spools of fabrics, all different colors and textures, frankly it looked like a mess, which was right up Remus’ alley. 

“Make us something matching.” Janus said after a bit. 

Remus just nodded, so unsure of what to say. 

“I want people to know you’re mine.” Janus stated firmly. Never breaking eye-contact with Remus. 

“Okay.” Remus nodded, trying to act like that wasn’t the hottest thing he’d ever heard in his life. 

“Hey guys, we should head to the theater now. You know we still have to get popcorn and stuff.” Patton said. 

“And you like watching the previews.” Logan said absently. “Wait, where’s Roman and Virgil?”

“Probably looking at shoes again.” Janus offered. 

“They’ll meet us there.” Remus shrugged. 

“I don’t know, Roman’s not good at math will he know where to go?” Logan pondered as they all started making their way out of the store and down the street. 

“Well, Virgil is good at math though so maybe they won’t get too lost.” Patton shrugged. 

“How good is Virgil at math?” Janus asked. 

“I think if they went to an American public school they’d currently be taking college level courses.” Patton said. “You’d be surprised how good at math they are. I tried to get them to help me with statistics but they have different names for everything so it was a little hard to understand what they were saying. That or I’m just bad at statistics.”

“I wouldn’t blame you for that either.” Janus said. “Statistics sucks. And I have Mr. Greenleaf so it’s like basically impossible to understand that class.”

“Ugh that’s so true.” Patton sighed. 

They entered the movie theater not long after that and got large bins of popcorn. Logan texted Roman and Virgil to just head straight to their seats and not bother with getting popcorn since the four of them had gotten enough. Remus chose to get a large of his usual drink, a mixture of Mountain Dew, cherry slush, orange Fanta, and lemonade. No ice, the cherry slush covered that. Janus was the only one brave enough to take a sip, though he seemed to regret it. Remus hummed happily as the four skipped their way to the theater and took their seats. Everyone seemed to silently agree that Virgil would be sat in the middle so they could have the best view. Remus and Janus ate from their extra buttery extra salty popcorn as they watched the previews come and go. Once it started getting a little close to the start of the movie and Roman and Virgil still hadn’t shown the group of four started getting a little nervous. 

Luckily however, the two came barreling in just before the lights dimmed. Something was very clearly off however because Virgil led the way looking wildly happy, while Roman appeared to have been reduced to a fluffy blob with skinny legs. As they got closer it dawned on everyone. 

Holy shit those two brought the biggest fucking dog anyone had ever seen into the movie theater.

“Virgil?!” Patton asked incredulously. 

“Roman!” Logan already sounded ready to scold them. 

“We’ll tell you later!” Virgil whisper yelled. They took a seat next to Remus and reached their arms out hopefully, for Roman to drop this giant goddamn dog onto their lap. 

Roman finally took his seat and acted as if nothing had happened while he idly grabbed a handful of popcorn from Patton and Logan’s bucket. 

“Guys what the hell?!” Janus gave them both a warning look. 

“Where did you get this thing?” Remus asked, tentatively reaching over to pet it. 

“A dog should not be in here!” Logan told them. 

“Whose dog did you steal?” Patton looked around the room, likely hoping no one was calling the police.    
  


“Shhhhh!!!” Virgil and Roman shushed the others adamantly and turned back to the screen. 

Meanwhile this giant fucking dog was sitting on Virgil’s lap, staring at the large screen and occasionally turning to look at Virgil or Roman, as happy as a creature like it could ever be. 

Janus and Remus gave each other a look before hurriedly trying to cover their laughs. The movie started. Remus had already seen it so he wasn’t paying as much attention to it as he was Virgil who had convinced the dog to lay down on their lap and let them pet it absently while their eyes were glued to Gal Gadot. They didn’t seem to be understanding much of what was happening, but Remus figured that didn’t matter. When the movie ended the few other people in the theater left soon and finally the six-seven?-of them were left alone. 

“What the hell you two?!” Janus hopped up and asked. 

“We leave you alone for ten minutes and you come back with a goddamn bear!?” Logan yelled. 

“I cannot believe you stole someone’s dog.” Patton sighed. “You will be returning him.”

“Whoa whoa!” Roman stood. “We did not steal her!”

“Yeah she was just left in front of the store!” Virgil argued. “The workers said she’d been left there!”

“So we took her!” Roman tried. “I mean c’mon look at her, a beautiful little sweetheart like Eddie here doesn’t deserve to be left out in the cold!”

“Eddie?” Virgil asked. “You named her Eddie?”

“W-well I was just thinking like, you like IT and Eddie is a good name for a dog and-”

“I love that.” Virgil smiled. 

“You do?” Roman looked at them so excited.

“You cannot keep her.” Janus stated. 

“What?!” The two looked at him, sadness just filling their eyes. 

“Guys I’m sorry but there’s no way you can keep her.” Patton tried. Getting up from his seat and walking over to them. “She can’t come back to the hotel with us, there’s no way we could drive her back in the car, Thomas would have to say yes to keeping her, and how are you even going to take care of her Virge?”

“Well, my therapist said I should be looking for a therapy animal to help me adjust to Earth. And since I can’t have a dinosaur,” They sent a pointed look at Logan. “Maybe I can have Eddie.”

“Virge.” Patton sighed. 

“No I’m keeping her!” Virgil said. Wrapping their arms around Eddie’s neck and hugging her close. The dog’s ears perked but she didn’t do much else. 

“Eddie’s been such a good girl ever since we grabbed her!” Roman argued. “She hasn’t barked at anyone or been mean and she already loves Virgil!”

As if on cue the dog turned its massive head to lick Virgil on the cheek. Roman crouched down and started scratching her behind the ears while Virgil buried their face in the side of her head and petted her long back. 

“Oh my god.” Patton started making his way out of the theater. “You know what, if you can convince Thomas, then keep her! I can’t do this.”

Logan followed him with a concerned look-though Remus wasn’t sure who it was for-and Virgil and Roman gave each other ‘mission accomplished’ smiles. Roman hoisted the dog off of Virgil’s lap and Virgil got up, giving the dog another snuggle before walking off and out of the theater, Roman quickly behind them. Remus gave Janus a little shrug before grabbing his hand and walking the two out. 

After getting various looks from the other people in the theater Roman, Virgil, Janus, Remus and now Eddie met with Patton and Logan outside. 

“What are we gonna do now?” Remus asked. 

“Go back to the hotel, sneak her in, and convince Thomas to let us keep Eddie.” Virgil said, as if they were telling Remus the weather. 

“How in the world are you going to sneak  _ that _ into the hotel?” Logan raised an eyebrow at the statement. 

“Well first of all, she’s not a ‘that’, she’s a she.” Roman scowled. 

“And we’ll sneak her in by uhm,” Virgil looked away in thought. “I-uh. Well, I’ll think about it on our way over. C’mon Red.”

The two walked away, a little too confident for their own good, and the remaining four gave each other exhausted looks before following. At this point Remus couldn’t give a shit, he just wanted to see how all of this was going to go down. As they neared the hotel Virgil seemed to have their plan fully formed and was whispering it to Roman and Eddie. Then they pulled out their phone and aggressively typed at it. A few buildings before they were at the hotel a ruffled looking Emile came into view holding a thick chain and a leash. 

“Oh my god.” Emile said as he stared at the dog. 

“I know.” Patton sighed. 

“Uh here.” Emile handed the chain and leash over. “Remy’ll be over in a sec.”

“Thanks.” Virgil took them and asked Roman to set Eddie down. 

Once on the ground the dog looked up at Virgil eagerly and allowed Virgil to clasp the chain around her neck and then hook the leash on it. 

“Virge that chain is one you like, put on your jeans.” Remus told them. 

“I know. But it’ll have to be a collar for now.” Virgil said, patting the dog between her ears. 

“C’mon Eddie.” Virgil started walking to the hotel.

Remus watched curiously as Virgil passed the hotel, took a sharp right and started walking down the side of the building. Once catching up Remus saw Remy standing in the alley holding open a side door, his own dog yipping at Eddie. Virgil thanked him and walked by, the two closing the door behind them. Remus raced inside the hotel and saw Virgil and Remy sneak by the rest of the people and into the elevator, quickly shutting it. 

Remus couldn’t believe it. The bitch actually did it. Emile, Remus, Patton, Janus, Logan, and Roman got into another elevator and didn’t speak. It was tense to say the least. When the box stopped and the doors opened they all raced to Thomas’ room. Standing outside it Virgil, Remy, and their respective dogs stood patiently waiting for Thomas to open it. 

“Yeah that’s what I was saying and-” Thomas stopped, phone to his ear, eyes wide as he stared at Virgil’s hopeful smile and the dog that was wagging her shaggy tail. “-I’m gonna have to call you back Nico.”

He hung up without hearing whatever the other person was saying and immediately pointed his phone toward the two, snapped a picture, pocketed the phone, and turned to Virgil expectantly. 

“Her name is Eddie.” Virgil said. 

Thomas sighed, got down on one knee, looked the dog in the eye, scratched her behind the ears, stood, and shrugged. 

“Yeah alright.” Thomas smiled kindly. 

“What?!” Patton freaked. 

“Oh my god.” Logan walked away. 

“Dear lord.” Janus sighed. 

“Yes!!” Roman cheered and ran over to Virgil. “Whoo hoo!” 

“C’mon Eddie let’s go online shopping for you!” Virgil, Roman, and the dog started running down the hotel hallway. 

Thomas looked at the others. “So what kind of dog is that anyway?” 

“I have no clue.” Patton sighed. 

“Oh well.” And with that Thomas turned around and walked back into his room. 

With not enough time left to do much else other than hang out in their hotel rooms, the group left to do just that. Remus and Janus simultaneously dropped face-first on their bed.

“Jan,” Remus started. “You think Roman and Virge will fall in love?”

“Like with each other or ever?”

“Each other.”

“I dunno.” Janus answered honestly. “It would be kinda perfect right. You and me, Logan and Pat, Roman and Virge. I mean what are the odds right?”

“Yeah.” Remus sighed. 

“I think it’s possible.” Janus told him. “Ro and Virge are-well I don’t know what they are exactly. They like hated each other most of yesterday but today it’s like they’re partners in crime. Bonnie and Clyde or I-I don’t know other famous crime couples. I think they could. But they both have a lot of growing to do. Roman’s dated like two guys and they were basically the same person. Roman’s never known someone like Virgil. None of us have, but Roman especially. I mean, I know a lot of people on the autism spectrum, you know a lot of people that have been through some serious shit, Patton knows Virgil the best and is able to connect with them better than any of us, and Logan knows how best to respect Virgil’s boundaries and help them discover new things. We all sort of bring something to Virgil to best support them. Roman though, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t think he really knows where to start.”

“But he’s getting there.” Remus practically finished for Janus. “He’s learning.”

“He’s trying.” Janus nodded. “I don’t know what perspective he’ll be able to offer Virgil, but whatever it is, it’ll be unique to him. That’s how Roman’s always done things. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“So why ask me about this?” Janus flipped onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. 

“I don’t know.” Remus shrugged. “I just-when I see them, I get this feeling. I don’t know what it is but I get this feeling in my gut and I guess I just think it has something to do with that.”

“Is it a bad feeling?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Remus shrugged, flipping over like Janus. 

“Hmm.” Janus hummed contentedly. “Maybe you should talk to Pat about it. I’m sure he could help you.”

“Yeah.” Remus looked over at Janus. He could tell Janus was thinking something, imagining something, and Remus wanted to know what. 

Before he could ask though, the two rangers got a text from Renette saying it was almost show time and to get down to the lobby. 

“Alright,” Renette began once everyone had gathered around her. “So I want you to get your Ranger armor on in the cars, then you’ll be dropped off by the stage to hang out and listen to Miley Cyrus. Like I said before, about half an hour before midnight you’ll be let go to meet with Virge, Remy, and Emile. Now, I’ve assigned you seats in the cars since I cannot handle listening to any ‘complaints’ any more.”

Remus and Janus exchanged smug looks with each other. 

“So Remus and Pat get in the first one, Janus and Roman in the second, Logan and Thomas in the third.” Renette clapped her hands. “Get a move on.”

Remus and Patton grouped up and made their way to the first uber. Once inside and buckled up the car started and the driver pulled away. 

“Hey Pat,” Remus figured now was as good a time as any. “I gotta question.”

“Ask away.” Patton gave him an award winning smile. 

“Well, when I see Virge and Roman getting along I get this-this feeling. It’s like deep in my gut and I’m so confused cause like what is it?”

“Hmm.” Patton looked away curiously. “Describe it a little more. What does it leave you feeling like?”

“I don’t know. Fine? There’s another word for that. I feel like, okay? Not exactly happy but not bad.”

“Content?” Patton tried. 

“Yes!”

“Remus I think that feeling you’re describing is hopeful.” Patton told him. 

“Hopeful huh?” Remus thought about this. “Maybe I am hopeful.”

Patton gave him another smile before turning away. Something about the way that smile didn’t meet his eyes made Remus stop. 

“Pat what’s up? You seem off.”

“I don’t know.” Patton shrugged. “I think I’m being paranoid. I just don’t have the best feeling right now.”

“Don’t have a good feeling about what?” 

“That’s the thing!” Patton snapped. “I have a bad feeling but I don’t know what it’s about.”

Remus scratched his head. “Yeah I think maybe you are paranoid.”

Patton nodded in agreement. The two summoned their Power Ranger armor. It was time to put on a show. 


	36. F***

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman's New Years Eve was ultimately going well, but the Dragon Witch had other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter features: Roman centric, some fluff but it’s at the beginning and brief, that’s really it-
> 
> This Chapter Warnings: cursing (a lot of use of the f-word so uh sorry), violence, kidnapping, kinda basically murder(not of a main character), angst, crying, yelling, pain, weapons, verbal abuse, brief mention of food, lmk if I missed anything

Overall Roman’s day hadn’t been too bad. He’d woken up to a tug on his blankets and found that Virgil, who looked like they had just finished crying, was silently asking him for some comfort. Roman didn’t hesitate to oblige. Not only did he enjoy holding Virgil in his arms for the sake of holding someone in his arms, but Roman specifically enjoyed that person being Virgil. Maybe it was because of how warm Virgil was or maybe it was because of the way Virgil ran their finger over Roman’s arm, tracing a pattern Roman didn’t recognize. Whatever the answer was Roman still enjoyed it greatly. After a little bit of silence Virgil had brought over their paradot and was watching the scenes on it play out. Roman wasn’t entirely sure if he should watch as well, but when he pulled out his phone and Virgil didn’t budge, Roman figured idly playing a game would work best. 

When it was time to actually do something the group landed on eating food, shopping, and going to see a movie. While Roman certainly enjoyed his sandwich and took amusement in Patton and Logan’s flirty dance around each other, he couldn’t help but notice the giant dog that had been wandering around, following people until they shooed it off. When said dog started following Roman and Virgil, he pointed this out to his companion and Virgil wasted no time claiming the dog as their own and hurrying Roman to bring her along with them. Roman honestly couldn’t say no. How anyone could was beyond him.

The movie was a spectacular success and getting Thomas to let Virgil keep the newly deemed Eddie was no issue. Roman and Virgil skipped over to their room and started going through items to buy for such a dog. 

“Here Red, I think Eddie’s a Newfoundland!” Virgil exclaimed showing Roman the photos of dogs that looked too similar to Eddie. 

“Probably.” Roman shrugged. “What do they eat?”

“Uhh,” Virgil read on. “Dog food.”

Roman laughed at that. “Okay, I guess when we get back we can ask Thomas to help with food and stuff. We can feed her some of Remus’ snacks until then.”

“Why would we feed a dog human food?” Virgil asked. 

“Oh no, Remus eats dog food. Well, dog treats. Like little dog biscuits and stuff. He says they taste better than human ones.” Roman told them. Virgil gave Roman a look of disgust and confusion, to which Roman just shrugged. 

“Okay, well, I-I think Eddie is too short of a name. Look at her! She needs a sophisticated name.” Virgil said. 

“Alright, alright,” Roman nodded. “Like a fancy name or?”

“I dunno, I guess not fancy. Just like a respectable one.” Virgil explained. “Like her full name is Edwina.”

“Edwina?” Roman pondered. “I like that. Edwina. But is it long enough to be respectable?”

“No.” Virgil decided. 

“Edwina Daveed.” Roman tried. 

“Hmm, now I like that but we can’t just give her two names.” Virgil pointed out, reasonably so. “How about, Edwina Avril Daveed.” 

Roman repeated it a few times to the dog. “Okay so I think she likes it, but you can’t really end a name on Daveed.”

“Yeah you’re right. Daveed needs to flow into something, it can’t be the end.”

“Anglo.” Virgil stated. 

“Anglo? What’s that from?” Roman asked. 

“I’ll tell you later.” Virgil said. “So, Edwina Avril Daveed Anglo. Hmm, that still feels off.”

“Probably because it’s four names. Like who has four separate names? We should add one more.”

“Right, cause five is basically an honorary even number.” Virgil agreed. 

“Sanders.” Roman finished. “Edwina Avril Daveed Anglo Sanders. Or Eddie for short.”

Virgil smiled goofily and turned to Eddie. “Whacha think Eddie, good name for you?”

The dog didn’t give much of a response but a pant and a tilt of the head. Virgil took this as a yes and nodded happily, going back to the laptop Roman had let them borrow to search for collars and leashes. 

Roman watched them, a suddenly familiar feeling pulsing in his chest. Roman was startled out of his staring-at-Virgil-stupor when he realized just what feeling it was.  _ Oh-ho-ho we are not going there! Nope! We’re gonna repress that for a bit!! _ Roman thought instantly.

  
  


When it came time for him to get ready for the New Years party Roman gathered himself and left to change into some more comfortable clothes. Virgil took this time to talk to Eddie in private and Roman went about getting his items packed to leave less work for himself the next day when they would be leaving. 

Roman and Virgil were the first two downstairs to meet Renette and Thomas. 

“Good you two are-” Renette stopped herself. “The hell is this?” 

“Edwina Avril Daveed Anglo Sanders.” Virgil said without hesitation. 

“We call her Eddie.” Roman explained. 

“She’s my new dog.” Virgil stated. “Thomas said it was okay.”

Renette gave Thomas a scathing look to which he simply shrugged and smiled. Renette gave a long sigh before mumbling ‘yeah alright’ and waiting for the others. 

Roman had to collect himself before he could go on stage to meet Miley Cyrus and felt like he was spending most of the time with her on stage being incredibly awkward. The others told him he was fine but the whole time Roman felt rigid. He just didn’t know how he was supposed to ask her to sign his Hannah Montana merch without it getting caught on microphones. When Roman and the others were finally let go to see their friends Roman begrudgingly went. Though, seeing Virgil’s smiling face and Eddie’s excited jumps made that not-autographed poster worth it. 

Now, did Roman consider himself a romantic? Yes. Was he currently in a romantic relationship with anyone? No. Did he want to be? Not particularly. Did he know how truly fucked he would be when he pulled a certain alien into a spaceship with him back to Earth? Absolutely he did not. 

Now however it was starting to dawn on him. As the jostling bodies of other tourists joined him in Times Square to watch as the large clock counted down from ten, Roman was realizing how absolutely fucked he was, and that it was all because of Virgil soon-to-be-Sanders. In front of him the clock had reached its final number on the countdown, and time almost went still. Remus and Janus were to Roman’s right, lip-locked and not giving a shit. In front of Roman, Patton and Logan had grabbed each other’s hands and were about to hug to celebrate the New Year, and beside Roman, to his left, stood possibly the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. 

Virgil, their wild curly hair framing their face in a perfect way as it was dusted by falling snowflakes, the reflections of the fireworks danced in their eyes, and their expression completely full of shock and awe as they stared at the lights that exploded and shimmered above them. Virgil held Eddie under her front legs so she was off the ground and had a good view of the sky, and Roman almost couldn’t handle it all. His mind was racing between thinking  _ oh my god this isn’t fair I can’t be falling for Virgil I thought I told you to repress this shit I shouldn’t have a crush on Virgil this is so rude what the hell stop it  _ and simply going  _ fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck _ over and over again. 

“Whoa.” Virgil rubbed their eyes and leaned forward. “This is. . . amazing.”

Roman had to agree. They really were.  _ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck _ .

“Roman,” Virgil reached over, practically slapping Roman in the face. “We need some of those.”

“What?”

“Those. Fireworks!” Virgil pointed. “We need some of those.” 

Roman thought about it. “We’ll pick some up on our way back home.”

“Awesome.” Virgil grinned. 

_ Fuuuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, f- _

Then the lights went out. Every powered light around them in Times Square. All the billboards and street lamps went black. It was eerie as the crowd fell silent, looking around, the only sounds were the few fireworks that continued to go off dramatically. The final firework zipped into the sky, then sizzled away before the pop of white light went off and burst away, the delayed boom felt like it reverberated in Roman’s chest. It was deathly silent now and Roman could barely see Virgil next to him.

_ uck. _

“What the hell?” A random person in the crowd asked. Their voice echoing off of the buildings. Other people began stammering out their own confusion at the situation.    
  


“Here Eddie.” Roman heard Virgil whisper beside him. 

The crowd’s volume began increasing, then just as quickly quieted back down. 

“Roman, I’m gonna take a guess and say this isn’t normally how these things go.” Virgil said. 

“You’d be right.” Roman nodded. He wondered if Virgil would be okay holding his hand. He’d seen Virgil grab Logan’s sleeve so maybe they didn’t like skin contact-Roman was perfectly fine with that too-but Roman really just wanted to hold their hand at this moment. 

“What’s going on then-”

Virgil’s inquiry was interrupted when a loud tearing sound wrapped at Roman’s eardrums. He and the thousands of people gathered in Times Square all looked up into the sky to see the largest breach any of them had ever seen. The orange-yellow rip in the sky expanded larger and larger, leaving the entire crowd paralyzed with fear. Then the masses of Witchlings began dropping from it and in once motion the crowd screamed and ran. The Power Rangers stood in terrified worry as the people around them scurried away. Roman felt his stomach drop hard as he watched the first of the witchlings land on the ground. 

“Suit up let’s go!!” Thomas shouted behind them. 

Roman didn’t hesitate. He activated his armor and turned around, waiting for more instructions. 

“Blue, Green, you two are with me, we need to round them up, keep the witchlings as contained as possible!! Pink and Yellow I need you two to help everyone out!!” Thomas ordered. 

“On it!” Patton nodded. Him and the others splitting off to carry out Thomas’ plan. 

“Red, you take Virge, Emile, and Remy and get them somewhere safe!!” Thomas yelled. 

“Dad!” Emile tried to argue. 

“Wait Thomas-” Virgil looked at him pleadingly. 

“Get them out of here!!” Thomas ran past Roman, diving into the fray of witchlings and taking them out as quickly as he could. “Now!!” 

Roman watched him go before turning back to the three. “Remy is it okay if I carry you?”

“You say that like I’d turn down the opportunity.” Remy joked, but it was half-hearted. 

Roman scooped him up, handing Emile the leash to his dog, then shouted at the other two to follow him while he ran, not really sure of where he would be taking them, but he figured he’d figure it out at some point. The point never came though, instead Virgil took the lead and started winding them through the crowd, Eddie bounding along by their feet. Before Roman knew it they had reached the hotel and Virgil was urging them inside. 

“Virge, you’re still too close to Times Square I think you should all run further!” Roman tried as he set Remy down. 

“Emile.” Virgil grabbed their hand and placed one of their hair clips in it. “Use this to pick the lock that goes to the roof. Renette had them lock it after uh-the other night, but I’ve seen you do more with less so. Here.”

“Virge.” Roman was starting to get a bad feeling about the way they were talking. 

“Virge what are you-”

“I’m going back with Roman.” Virgil said. “I can help them. I-I grew up with these things. And whatever general she’s sent, I-I can reason with them.”

“Then I’m coming too!” Emile argued. 

“No.” Virgil told them fimly. Closing their fingers around the hair clip. “Get to the roof, you can watch from there, but don’t come help.”

“But Virgil! I can help you!”

“You’re not a Power Ranger!!” Virgil yelled. Then they softened. “You have no idea how much you’ll be missed if-if you-”

“You don’t know how much  _ you’ll _ be missed!! I’ll miss you!! Please Virgil at least if I’m there-”

“No.” Virgil gave Emile Eddie’s leash and shoved both of the fourteen year olds toward the elevators. “Just go!”

Emile turned around like he had something more to say, but Remy was saying something to him that Roman couldn’t hear, and Emile stopped. Then he gave Virgil a curt nod before helping Remy to the elevators. 

Virgil whipped around to face Roman, making eye contact with him for only a moment before they started off to Time Square again. “C’mon Red. I got a plan.”

Roman could only nod as Virgil grabbed his hand and began running. The people that were pushing past them gave the two strange looks, but said nothing. Finally they were back to the real action. 

“Virgil, I-I don’t wanna push you or anything, but what exactly is your plan?!” Roman asked as he summoned his sword and prepared himself for the fight to come. 

“Well, basically I’m gonna help you guys kill these monsters and then tell my mo-tell the Dragon Witch to fuck off!!” Virgil yelled over the shouting around them. 

“Uh-huh okay, and again I don’t wanna step on your toes or anything here Virge, but you don’t have a weapon! How are you gonna kill the Witchlings?!?” 

“Witchlings huh? That’s what you call them? Nice.” Virgil, a little pointedly didn’t answer Roman’s question, but oh well, Roman figured he didn’t have much of a choice other than to trust them. 

Virgil and Roman kept running until finally they were past the lines of running pedestrians and now back to the other Power Rangers. Patton and Janus were off somewhere else likely still helping people vacate the area, while Logan and Remus were down on the ground taking out the witchlings as efficiently as ever. Thomas meanwhile wasn’t in Roman’s sight and he was a little worried by that. 

“Roman!!” Remus shouted. “Help us!! Over here!!”

“I-I don’t want to leave Virgil alone!!” Roman shouted back. 

“What?!” Remus killed the witchling in front of him and whipped around. “Oh my god what is Virgil doing here!?!” 

“They wouldn’t stay put!!” Roman tried to explain. 

“Fu-Virgil!! Stay put!!” 

“No f-off!!” Virgil quickly flipped Remus off. 

“They learned this from you.” Logan pointed out. 

“God I’m gonna be a terrible mom.” Remus sighed. 

“Alright I got the east perimeter pretty much clear of pedestrians and-” Patton dropped in from one of the buildings with his grappling hook arrow. “Virgil why can’t you just stay put.”

“I can help Pat.” Virgil said. “I know her better than anyone, I know all of their plans and strategies and I can help you take them down!”

Patton made a motion like he wanted to protest but Janus had run up behind Roman and Virgil, yelled about how his side of the block was clear of pedestrians, handed Virgil a dagger and run off into the fray of Witchlings. Patton sighed, shrugged, and motioned for Roman to get going on an attack plan. 

“Okay, P, take Virgil up to the top of one of those buildings and start doing what you usually do, Virgil can assess the situation from there and report back on what we should do.” Roman shoved both of them off. “Green keep these monsters contained, Yellow cover his flank and help him out as best as you can. Blue you’re with me, we need to make a b-line for the middle of the pack, I’m assuming that’s where Thomas is.”

Everyone jumped to follow orders. Janus and Remus went on doing what they do best, Logan and Roman charged side-by-side to the hoard of witchlings that had surrounded Thomas, and out of the corner of his eye Roman saw Patton pulling himself and Virgil up to the roof of a building just as planned. Logan skewered some witchlings in front of him while Roman cut down the others that went to attack. When they reached Thomas he seemed to be handling the situation well, but Roman and Logan had brought more attention to him so the extra support was frankly needed. 

“Patton and Janus got pedestrians away safely!” Logan informed the oldest Ranger as he brought his lance down through a witchling’s skull.

“Good!” Thomas replied. “Roman, are Emile, Remy, and Virgil safe?”

“Yep!!” Roman said, really not trying to get in trouble now. 

“Emile and Remy are at least.” Logan scoffed. 

“What?!” Thomas wheeled around on Roman exacerbated, while also being able to take down a witchling that had come up behind him. 

“Damn you’re good at this.” Roman told him. 

“Uh-uh kid!! Where’s Virgil?”

“On a roof with Patton.” Roman confessed. “They didn’t give me much of a choice!!”

“Gah!!” Thomas let out an irritated grunt and reeled back around on another witchling, taking it down with ease. 

Roman gritted his teeth in regret but continued on fighting. He knew not to work too hard on these monsters, they were simply the first wave. The real battle begins when the general arrives. 

“Guys!” Patton’s voice came on over their intercoms. “Virgil thinks the general we’re gonna see is Jemina!”

“What can they tell us about her?” Thomas asked. 

“Virgil says she begins by swarming, she sends droves of witchlings to come after us, but they’re mindless, they’re just being dropped to die. Then she arrives, she’ll probably go after Thomas, and to keep the rest of us distracted with some of the newer witchlings.” Patton explained. “Wait.”

“I knew they were called witchlings!” Remus laughed. 

Roman rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. 

“Virgil doesn’t think that’s all. There’s gonna be something more up Jemina’s sleeve but they aren’t sure what.” Patton continued. “I’ll keep you guys posted.”

“Thanks P.” Janus said back. 

Roman went back to putting his full focus on the fight. He cut through one of the witchlings in front of him and used that momentum to carry himself forward and push his sword through another. Behind him Logan was taking on a few witchlings at a time, but he didn’t seem to be having too much trouble with it. Thomas was having a much better time than either of them it seemed. 

“You ever fought Jemina?” Roman asked Thomas. 

“Once.” Thomas said. “And it wasn’t really me fighting her. Valerie got to give Jemina a piece of her mind. She was really pissed that day. She had screwed up on her SAT’s that morning so.”

“Yeesh.” Roman cringed. 

“Yeah.” Thomas sighed. 

Roman sliced another witchling to dust and looked around, assuring Logan and Thomas didn’t need any help. After a quick glance he knew the two were good and continued on. 

“Green, Yellow!! West side, they’re starting to break away!” Patton informed. 

“I’m on it!” Janus responded. 

After a few beats of quiet over the intercom Patton’s voice came back. 

“Wait no!” Patton shouted. “Don’t go!”

“What?” Janus asked. 

“Virgil says if you’re gonna go to take someone with you. Usually that stuff is a trap. It’s when Jemina will show up. She’ll take one of us out to get Black’s attention.” Patton informed him. 

“Should I go at all?!” 

“Uhh-” Patton pondered that. “Yeah there’s kind of a lot of them.”

“Blue, go with Yellow!!” Thomas instructed. “You two take care of that as quickly as possible then get back here! Don’t take the bait, just focus on keeping them contained.”

“Got it.” Logan nodded, and began heading off to meet Janus. 

“Be there in a sec!!” Janus affirmed. 

Roman and Thomas continued fighting back to back. Roman sliced through one and Thomas hacked at another, the crowd began thinning and Roman could see Remus’ green armor glinting as his brother took down Witchling after Witchling. 

“She’s here!!!” Logan’s voice shouted. 

“Get back to the group!!” Thomas told him and Janus. 

“There’s still more-”

“Pink can get them for you from where he is! Blue and Yellow you two get back over here by Red and I!!” Thomas ordered. 

“We’re on our way.” Janus said. 

Roman and Thomas continued their fight, waiting for Logan and Janus to meet them. When Roman saw a glint of yellow out of the corner of his eye he turned to see Logan and Janus had finally met with them, behind them however was a more curious sight. The witchlings were parting themselves, they’d stopped fighting and now stood at attention, as if awaiting instructions. It felt eerily similar to the fight they’d had with Poisandana. With Logan and Janus by his side Roman finally got a good in-person look at Jemina. He had seen her in Virgil’s videos, when she’d cared for them as a baby, but now, this Jemina had lost that kind motherly smile. Replaced by something more pained, more haunted. Her eyes were full of anger. She looked over the Rangers, all of them ready to resume their fight. However her eyes glazed over them and she started talking to nowhere in particular. 

“You can come out now dear!” She shouted. “We’re done.”

Roman took a glance over at his friends confused. 

“C’mon! Virgilius they’ve been lying to you! Whatever they’ve been telling you they were lying!!” She shouted once again. 

Now Roman understood, but he felt like he only had half the story. Why was she talking to Virgil?   
  


“Whatever you’re trying to do Jemina, you can stop.” Thomas said. 

“Dearest! She wants you home!” Jemina yelled. “She needs you back! Come with me now!”

“Virgil isn’t going anywhere with you.” Janus practically growled. 

“Virgil trusts us. You’re not taking them anywhere.” Logan said firmly. 

“Virgilius please this is getting tiresome. Reveal yourself!” She tried once again, her voice was getting just a little desperate. “She’s going to be angry if we don’t get back home soon!”

“Give it up!” Roman yelled at her. “Virgil isn’t leaving us.”

“Dear you don’t need to keep up the act!” Jemina shouted louder. “She’s beginning the final stage of colonization! You can stop pretending.”

This made Roman’s stomach drop. Janus looked over at him worriedly. 

“Show them!!” Jemina demanded. “Show them that it was all a trick!! That you’ve been lying, pretending!! If we go to her now she won’t be angry!! She’ll understand why you did this!! It was for information!!”

“Logan what is she talking about?” Roman asked. 

“I have no idea.” Logan admitted. 

“You can show them that this was all a lie! That it was a trick! You’re safe to come home now! We can give her everything you’ve learned!” Jemina started again. “I’m so proud of you for doing this now please come with me so we can see the others again!!”

“Patton what’s going on?” Thomas’s voice came on over the intercoms. 

“Virgil’s talking but uh-not in english. I don’t know what they’re saying but they’re pacing and-oh. Wait hang on.” It was quiet for a bit. 

“Virgilius please it’s time to come home!!” Jemina’s voice broke. 

“Virgil says she’s giving them an out.” Patton said, there was a little edge to his voice that made Roman shiver. “She said that the Dragon Witch’s final part of her plan is going to begin soon, and with that comes the mass extinction of useless life on this planet. Because of the trouble that humans have been giving her the Dragon Witch has given up on finding uses for us. Virgil says that Jemina is trying to give Virgil the chance to act like them being here wasn’t by chance. It was planned. She wants Virgil to act like they were getting info out of us so the Dragon Witch doesn’t punish them.”

“Is Virgil okay?” Thomas asked. 

“Yeah they’re alright they’re just trying to get their thoughts in order.” Patton said. 

“What’s the final stage?” Logan asked. 

“Virgil what’s the final stage?” Patton implored softly. 

Whatever Virgil was going to tell Patton got interrupted when a loud angry sound ripped through the air. Roman looked up to the breach in the sky as it glowed bright, out of the corner of his eye Roman saw as Jemina turned in fear before moving off to the side. The breach’s light grew too bright and Roman had to look away, shielding himself from the sight. When it dimmed and he heard the terrified gasps of his friends Roman looked back. There for everyone to see was the falling form of the Dragon Witch. Her pale skin stark against the blackness of night. When she landed the ground shook and cracked beneath her. Her golden staff in hand and metallic black hair up. As she walked closer to the Power Rangers they all froze in fear. Her spiked black chest-plate reminded Roman of the armor Virgil used to wear. Of course the stark difference being that the rest of her armor was white and gold, her dark smile and clacking heels against the cement made Roman want to run. As she got closer it became more apparent that this woman was probably nine or ten feet tall, towering over everyone around her. 

“Where are the other two?” She asked calmly. 

“The P-Pink one is up on the rooftops,” Jemina said, bowing. “And the Green one is in the back.”

“Fetch them for me.” She gave a flick of her fingers. Jemina nodded and retreated off, giving orders to a couple of the witchlings before she herself started off toward the rooves. “How long has it been Thomas?”

“Not long enough.” Thomas told her. He seemed to be the only one unaffected. 

“Hmm.” She gave him a sickening smile. “Your new team isn’t ready. They’ve only been Power Rangers for a few months. Even when you had been Power Rangers for a few decades you couldn’t defeat me.”

“They’re good.” Thomas said, no emotion in his voice. 

“Oh I know. Already better than the last generation.” She said. “Perhaps it’s time for you to pass on the mantle.”

“I’ve actually been thinking the same.” Thomas told her. “I’m getting a little too tired for this. You must be as well. Those morphers are weighing you down, practically poisoning you at this point. You’re getting weaker. More desperate.”

“And you’re getting boring.” She said snidely. 

  
Roman heard rustling behind him and turned, the witchlings parted as a few of them dragged Remus forward. His twin was having a one-sided argument with the monsters before promptly shutting up and staring at the Dragon Witch. 

“Shit dude.” Remus’ voice rose by a few octaves. 

To Roman’s right Jemina appeared once again with a tense looking Patton in tow. 

“Don’t touch me.” Patton snarled at the woman as she ushered him forward. 

“You’ve arrived.” The Dragon Witch said with a growing grin. “Lovely. Tell me, where’s my son?”

No one spoke. 

“General?” She turned to Jemina. 

“Th-he’s nowhere to be found sir.” Jemina stated. 

“Hmm. So you’ve hidden him?” She turned to the Power Rangers. Her face was somewhat obscured by the crown-like helmet that she wore. Yet another thing that connected to ‘Virgilius’. 

It suddenly hit Roman that Jemina had lied. Either that or Patton had somehow hidden Virgil before she’d arrived on the roof. Roman eyes Jemina questioningly, what could she be playing at?

“You’ll never get them back.” Thomas told her, still he showed no indication of emotion. “They’ll never be yours to control.”

“Hmph.” She sighed at that. “They were turning out to be useless anyway.”

There was something in her voice that ticked Roman off. Not just the way she was talking about Virgil so rudely, but the fact that Roman felt like she was lying through her teeth made Roman seeth. Roman wanted to speak up, say anything really, but that daunting look in her eyes practically pinned him to the spot. Remus made a motion forward but Janus quickly put a stop to this. 

“He isn’t too far away though is he? I’d like him to see this. Surely you wouldn’t let him too far off? Too dangerous to be left without supervision that one.” She practically smirked. “Oh well. I can only hope he gets a good view of this little spectacle I’ve prepared.”

“Sir are you not going to look for-”

“Did I permit you to speak General?” The Dragon Witch snapped. Even Logan flinched away from her voice.

Jemina bowed her head and didn’t say anything more. 

“Proceed as planned General Jemina. Is that clear?” 

“Yes sir.” Jemina responded curtly. She swallowed thickly and turned to the Power Rangers, pure anger flooding her face. 

“Wonderful.” The Dragon Witch brought up her staff with one hand holding it out in front of her. She brought her other hand out, grasped the staff low on its hand and with a flash of light pulled her hands away. Now in her right hand she gripped a golden short-staff, that same shattered crescent moon stood atop it. In her left a flail, white and spiked, the ball at the end probably the size of Roman’s head. “Let’s put on a show.”

“Run!!” Thomas shouted. 

Roman didn’t wait a moment. The loud crackling of energy behind him buzzed in his ears as Roman ran. When he turned he saw a dark scathing mark in the cement where she had shot that blast. Beside Roman, Patton had tripped on his feet and fallen hard but picked himself up quickly and clumsily continued running. When a flash of white made Roman think twice he yelled for Patton’s attention and drew his sword dashing in front of Patton to block him from the force of the flail. The result was a harsh metallic clang as his sword and the ball collided. Roman stumbled back, losing his footing. Patton barely caught him but by the time the two had collected themselves the Dragon Witch was firing another blast of energy at them. 

In no time Thomas had jumped in front of the blast and deflected it with his axe. He looked back at the two to assure their safety before dashing forward, dodging the flail and throwing his axe at her side. 

“Where’s Virge?” Roman asked Patton hurriedly. 

“They’re still on the roof.” Patton said. “She saw them. Jemina lied.”

Roman nodded. Patton put a hand to Roman’s chest plate, before nodding and summoning an arrow. Roman moved to the side as Patton fired at the Dragon Witch. It bounced off her armor. Roman brought his sword up and followed the others in their charge. Remus hit her flail with his morning star, directing it off to his left and continuing forward. Roman ran beside him both going for any weak spots. When the blast of energy cascaded over to them the twins jumped out of the way, losing their forward momentum. Thomas was trying to continue attacking her but the swarms of witchlings was making it difficult. 

Patton and Janus stepped in then, keeping the witchlings at bay. Roman and Remus picked themselves up and the two continued forward. Thomas threw his axe, distracting her for long enough so Roman could get a clean hit in. The dragon witch didn’t seem any bit fazed. Instead she brought her flail forward and smacked Roman in his chest sending him back far and hard into the ground. Remus, likely thinking she was focused on Roman and Thomas, jumped up to come down on an exposed juncture between her armor. The energy from her short staff hit him in the gut, sending him back far. Roman watched his brother stumble to get up before collapsing again. 

Suddenly Logan ran into view, his lance drawn and raised just in time to block as Jemina came down over Remus with her double-bladed sword. She brought the other end of her sword up and knocked Logan back a little, but he recovered quickly and went back to his precise attacks. 

Remus took that chance to get back on his feet and Roman did the same. Both of them hurriedly attempting to think of a plan. Thomas was on the defensive, dodging her attacks swiftly, but not exactly keeping her attention. Roman figured if they kept her distracted long enough. Wore her down until Patton and Janus had taken care of the witchlings, then the five of them could possibly over power her. Roman looked at Remus who was once again by his side. They split off from each other this time, attacking her from opposite sides. Roman dodged her flail by dropping down to slide on his knees and took a swing at her legs, his sword simply clanging against the armor. Thomas used this to his advantage and swung his axe high, aiming for the same spot Remus had earlier. Behind her Remus had brought his morningstar to her side. 

The Dragon Witch only smiled. She threw her short-staff up high into the air, now using her free hand to grab Thomas’ axe before it made contact, then brought her flail back and wrapped the chain around the handle of Remus’ morningstar. She pulled both weapons away from their owners, scattering them elsewhere. As the ball of her flail came back she used one swift motion to hit Thomas in the side, catch her falling short-staff, smack Remus in the chest with its end, and fire a blast of energy at Roman. 

His body writhed in pain as the burning heat coursed through Roman’s veins. Roman heard the pavement smack against his armor and it rang in his ears. His senses were blown to hell and Roman felt hot tears streak down the sides of his face. Roman’s heart pounded in his chest and when the pain began to dim he started pushing himself up. Just in time to see one of Janus’ daggers clang off of the Dragon Witch’s crown and an arrow just barely miss her neck. 

Roman staggered up, his limbs still ached but his adrenaline stifled the pain. Roman went in. Drawing the attention of the Dragon Witch’s energy blast yet again. This time Roman did his best to deflect it with his sword. Pushing forward with all his strength until it was drawn away again and he could continue on. Roman brought his sword up to her chin, she backed off for the first time this fight. Taking a harsh step back that cracked the pavement beneath her. Roman sensed movement behind him and dropped down, he felt a boot on his back and when that pressure released he rolled back. Seeing Remus jump high and swing for the back of her head while Thomas swung at her middle. Roman jumped over and brought his sword up to block the energy blast that aimed at Thomas while Remus hit her helmet hard, sending her forward just a bit. Roman’s twin landed on the ground and quickly dodged the flail that was coming for him. Thomas and Roman both backed off as Janus raced past them and threw two daggers by her head, disorientating her for a moment so he could aim for her neck. Roman watched the dagger streak toward her pale, long neck, then get trapped between two gold-covered fingers as she caught it, short-staff pointed down in the same hand. She smiled too soon however. Patton sunk an arrow into the slice of armor that Thomas had cut. It beeped once, then exploded violently. 

Thomas put his hands over where Roman’s ears would be and shielded the boy from the blast. Pink smoke filled the square and Roman closed his eyes tight. He hoped Janus and Remus had gotten to each other before the blast went off. 

When Thomas shifted and pulled his hands away Roman opened his eyes whipping around quickly to see what effect this had had on the Dragon Witch. The pink settled and there standing in the center of it all she was. A look of annoyance and frustration on her face. Behind her Remus and Janus were cowering against each other. She still held the dagger between her fingers. She dropped it and gave the Yellow and Green Rangers a once-over. 

“Pathetic.” The Dragon Witch sighed. “Sloppy. Barely planned. Useless. Naive. Crude.”

She brought her hand up and down across her body, flail flinging by all of them, wrapping itself around Patton’s midsection and pulling him forward in the blink of an eye. She grabbed Patton by the neck and held him high. 

“This is what you call a team Thomas?!?” She shouted. “This is what you have to protect your planet!?! You’re all so useless!!! Your so called leader is cowering behind you like the child he is!!! Your Blue Ranger can barely defeat one of my weakest generals!!! Your Green and Yellow Rangers are so untrained and uncoordinated!!! And you!!! You Pink!!! You were on my ship!!! You were tortured and almost killed and yet you never broke once!!! Never once giving in to what was being asked of you!!! I thought perhaps you were special, you were going to impress me even! Now!?! Ha!! You’re a joke! A complete and utter joke! You’re just as easy to crush as your pathetic parents were when I brought them to me and killed them with these very weapons.”

Suddenly she dropped Patton on the ground, turning around swiftly and catching a yellow dagger by its handle. Janus and Remus scrambled over to Patton helping him up and running over to Thomas and Roman. Logan was beside them in a moment, holding Patton’s arm and examining him quickly. Roman looked around, to see no Jemina in sight. 

“Can you shut the fuck up!?!” Virgil’s voice boomed through the air. 

The Dragon Witch dropped the dagger, the metal clanking loudly against the sudden silence. 

Roman looked up. Virgil stood on the edge of the roof, bright glowing purple orbs swirling around them. Their whole body seemed to light up dramatically. Roman honestly was terrified by how similar their disposition was to when they were Virgilius, but another part of him was so unbelievably caught in awe. 

“Gods why do you always do that?!” Virgil shouted. “Stop, stop, stop it!!!”

“Virgilius!” She called, if Roman didn’t know any better he’d honestly say she was happy to see them. 

“Don’t call me that!!!” They screamed. The orbs glowing bright, more aggressive. 

She didn’t say anything for a beat. 

“Magnot, release them.” 

Immediately from the breach an unbelievably huge beast burst into existence, it’s terrifying face snarling and screeching, it’s gold metal plates clanging and scraping as it entered the space. Then another arrived, white and just as terrifying. Both beasts were covered in horns and had large sharp teeth that they bared at the Rangers. 

“What the fuck are those?!” Remus asked Thomas. 

“Janus call Maureen now!!!” Thomas ordered, his voice more panicked than Roman had ever heard it.

“Are those her fucking zords!?” Logan screamed. 

“Roman, get to Virgil, and guard them! Pat, Lo, and Remus, you stay here and do your best against her.” Thomas ordered. “Janus and I will try to take care of these two.”

“Okay.” Roman replied shakily.

Behind him the yellow and black zords had come to their owners’ calls and were preparing for battle. Roman ran to the building Virgil stood atop, he raced up the many flights of stairs, tripping up every now and then as the ground shook beneath him. When he arrived on the roof Virgil whipped their head around and sighed in relief. The orbs that glowed around them dimming ever so slightly. 

“Are you okay?!” Roman asked.

“Are you?!” Virgil countered. 

Roman nodded and Virgil returned the gesture. He ran to Virgil’s side and assessed the situation. Virgil themself was okay, shaky but okay. Down below Patton, Logan, and Remus were fighting the Dragon Witch, and though it was a little hard to make out, they didn’t seem to be doing too badly. Above and in front of them the four zords were engaged in battle. Janus’ snake had itself wrapped around the head of the white one and Thomas’s turtle was on the defensive from the gold’s teeth. 

“Shit Virge are those really her zords?” Roman asked. 

“I guess so yeah.” Virgil nodded. “I’ve never seen them. She never summons them. It takes up so much of her power.”

“What are they?” Roman stammered out. 

“I-I-I don’t, gods. They’re monsters Roman. Hell demons that legends say could kill a god.” Virgil tried to explain. 

“That’s really ominous.” Roman told them. 

“You have no idea.” Virgil replied. 

The door behind them burst open. Roman had been too distracted by the fight above him he hadn’t noticed the new hoard of witchlings that were flooding the building to get to them. 

“Virgil get behind me.” Roman ordered. 

Virgil did as they were told and Roman ran forward striking down monster after monster as best as he could. However they were beginning to overpower him quickly. He struck one in the chest and turned to slash at another, seeing that there were going to be too many for him to handle soon and he was pushed too far back. 

“Roman they’re climbing the side of the building!!” Virgil shouted. 

“Shit.” Roman cut down another one and moved on. “Virgil can those orbs do anything?”

“Like what?” Virgil asked. 

“I don’t know, kill a witchling?!” Roman yelled over. 

“I-I don’t know seers don’t really-they-I don’t-I can’t control them yet Red!! They just sort of appear!” Virgil exclaimed. 

“Can you figure it out? Preferably now?!” 

“Shit I can try.” Virgil responded. 

Roman heard some mumbling and movement behind him and then a little exclamation of pain. 

“You okay?”

“I’m working on it Red!!” Virgil said back. 

“Virge I can’t keep this up forever!!” Roman said as he shoved his sword through the chest of one witchling and immediately pulled back to decapitate another. 

“I’m trying, I'm trying!!” Virgil said. “Fuck why won’t you work!! Ah!!”

Roman turned around swiftly to see a witchling tower over Virgil as it pushed itself over the roof’s edge and grabbed at them. Roman ran forward and drove his sword through the witchling’s skull. Unfortunately for him the witchling grabbed his shoulder hard and fell back, pulling Roman over the ledge with him. 

“Red!!!” Virgil screamed. 

_ Well shit this isn’t how I wanted to die _ , Roman thought before he started screaming. Suddenly his back hit something, something that wasn’t the concrete. He turned over to see a flat purple disk just the right size for him, had caught Roman in his fall and completely severed the witchling’s hand from the rest of its arm. The disk started to rise and Roman wasted no time getting to his feet and hopping from there back onto the roof so he could skewer some more monsters. 

“Virgil you did it!!” Roman shouted with glee. 

“I did!!” Virgil cheered. The two stood side-by-side, Roman slashing the witchlings in front of him with his sword while Virgil summoned more disks and started turning the witchlings to dust just like Roman.

Roman and Virgil kept up a good pace, guarding each other and breaking apart the masses of witchlings They switched positions and Roman started taking care of the ones on the roof while Virgil shot discs down at the monsters that climbed the side of the building. The two worked in tandem for a while until the hoard thinned enough for Roman to finish them off. 

“That won’t be the last group.” Virgil said, winded and a little dizzy looking. “Jemina is probably rallying some more now.”

“Are you okay?” Roman asked again. 

  
“Fuck Red, are you?” Virgil looked at Roman incredulously. 

A loud crash and a shake of the Earth caused both Roman and Virgil to lose their footing. Roman scrambled to his feet and looked over to see the black turtle zord on its back, crushing several buildings. The gold metallic monster snarling on top of it. A shrill yell of ‘Thomas!!!’ reaped through the air as Patton screamed in pain. Roman watched, horrified, as Thomas’ form exited the turtle and started attacking. 

“Thomas!” Virgil yelled. 

“What is he doing?!” Roman’s voice felt strained in his throat. 

“Teddy’s down.” Virgil said. “Shit this isn’t good at all! Roman we have to get down there and help-”

A roar stopped whatever statement Virgil had been making and caused both teens to turn. There, looming over the Dragon Witch, a larger than life pink and black tiger bared its teeth. The tiger charged at the golden monster, drawing it away from Thomas and his zord, and sinking its teeth deep into the monster’s neck. The tiger was thrown off the gold zord but it wasted no time centering itself back up and attacking again, claws slashing into the monster’s stomach, using its force to try and over power the creature. 

“Oh my god.” Virgil breathed. “Patton-Patton did it!! Ha ha!! He did it!! He summoned his zord!!!”

Roman tore his eyes away from the sight to check on Thomas once again. He had slipped away from his zord and was taking over for Patton in the effort to fight the Dragon Witch. Logan and Remus kept her attention and Thomas got a good clean hit in. The Dragon Witch yelled in pain and shot at Thomas with her short-staff. 

“Roman!” Virgil said suddenly. “Tell the others to go for her weapons. Try to get them away from her. She’s using up so much of her energy to keep her zords here that her weapons will start failing her soon. She’s getting sloppy.”

“Got it.” Roman nodded. He relayed this information to the others and started looking for ways he and Virgil could help. 

“Red I’m getting tired.” Virgil told him. “That-that disc stuff really took something out of me I think.”

“It’s okay, I-I don’t expect you to be perfectly fine. Just stay here and try to rest.” Roman said, hoping his caring tone came across to Virgil. “I’ll protect you.”

Suddenly the door behind them burst open. Roman turned, an arm already out to shield Virgil from anything that had arrived. Jemina had made her second appearance. Her weapon was drawn and she gave Roman an angry snarl, but softened greatly when she looked down to Virgil. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Virgil said firmly, purple orbs began swirling around them and Roman. 

She didn’t respond. Roman pointed his sword forward, readying himself for an attack. He felt as Virgil wrapped their hand around his, interlocking their fingers and bringing his arm down to his side. Roman didn’t look back, not wanting to take his eyes off the general for a second. 

“I’m not leaving them Jemina.” Virgil told her. “I’ve found my family and I’m never going back to that hell hole!” 

She still had nothing to say. 

“I have a life here that’s worth protecting!!” Virgil yelled.

Her stoic expression broke. Sadness filled her eyes as she looked at Virgil’s cold expression. Finally Jemina let her weapon fall by her side. She looked down, face hidden from the two. Roman looked over at Virgil, their firm stance hadn’t changed, the purple orbs grew brighter around them, lighting up Virgil’s face in a dangerously haunting way. 

“I’ve found my Pallas!!” Virgil shouted. Jemina looked up, her eyes watery. “But I’m not running!! I’m not running away from this like she did!! I’m going to help take down the Dragon Witch if it’s the last thing I do.”

Jemina lifted her chin, eyes glazing over Roman, before she focused on something else Roman couldn’t see. Jemina brought her hand up and wiped at the corner of her eye before looking at the two with a hard expression and charging. Virgil let go of Roman’s hand and sent a few orbs her way. The general dodged them and continued forward. Roman held his sword out and ready. Jemina lifted one side of her blade and hit Roman’s sword to the side, then grabbed Roman’s helmet and pulled him forward, he stumbled and in one motion the general had stepped on his back and pushed herself up and off the roof. Roman turned to see as one of the sides of her double-bladed sword sank into the white metal of the passing zord. She didn’t look back to Virgil, instead keeping her gaze forward, climbing the side of the monster and sashing across and out of sight. 

Roman tore his eyes away from her and looked down to Remus and Logan. The two were charging forward at the Dragon Witch and she sent a blast of energy at them. Remus jumped out of the way, but Logan wasn’t as lucky, getting hit in the side and effectively flung back on his back. Remus called out to him but in his haste to help Logan got hit in the head with the ball of the Dragon Witch’s flail. Remus crumpled to the ground unmoving. Roman could only watch, unable to get down there fast enough to help. 

Jemina arrived at the Dragon Witch’s side, her sword pointed at Logan and Remus. The Dragon Witch stopped down and lifted Thomas up. Roman realized Thomas was unconscious and she easily slung his body over her shoulder. Logan stumbled to his feet and wobbled a little before going back on the attack. He was too disoriented however, and Jemina disarmed him and held him on the ground. The Dragon Witch started walking away, Flail and short-staff back as one. 

“What is she doing with him?!” Virgil leaned over the ledge of the building. 

The ground shook again and Roman looked over to see the yellow zord on the ground, severely injured and unable to move much. The monster on top of it snarled again and tore a chunk of metal off of her. Roman hoped that Janus had gotten to safety but couldn’t be sure. The white zord gave one last threatening growl before getting off of Maureen and began running. As the white zord ran past the Dragon Witch she stuck her staff deep into its metal hide and let herself be pulled along. Roman watched the zord jump up and head toward the breach. 

“Thomas no!!” Virgil yelled. 

The purple orbs were back again, there were less of them but they were bright and angry and Roman couldn’t think right with all the sounds and lights spinning around him. The Gold zord was thrown far in the air by Patton’s zord, but it took this to its advantage and started flying toward the breach, disappearing with a flash of orange light. The white zord began disappearing through the breach and Roman’s head spun as he tried to think of what he could do to get Thomas out of her grasp. 

Virgil had their own plan in mind, running to the far back of the roof and dashing forward, hastily hopping up onto the ledge and pushing themself off the roof. A purple disk forming underneath them and flying forward.    
  


“Virgil wait!!!” Roman called. 

Roman watched helplessly as Virgil reached their arm out desperately trying to reach Thomas before he disappeared through the breach. 

An orange flash of light filled the sky and Roman had to shut his eyes tightly once again. When he opened them all he saw was Virgil’s form, alone in the sky, arm reaching out to nothing, purple orbs gone. Then they started falling. They showed no sign of slowing down. 

“Shit, shit, shit!!!” Roman followed Virgil’s earlier actions. 

Running back and then forward again hopping up onto the roof’s ledge and propelling himself into the air. Everything around him was dark and cold now that the breach’s light was no longer lighting up Times Square. When Roman caught Virgil mid air the first thing he noticed was how warm Virgil was. Then it was the way their hair whipped around their face, then the tears in their eyes that streaked up and off their forehead into the sky, creating little stars right before Roman’s very eyes. Roman wrapped himself around Virgil, holding them close and trying to think of anything, anything at all he could say. Roman felt his own tears create a pool of wetness on the bottom of his chin. Virgil rested their head against Roman’s shoulder, not letting him see their face. Roman looked away from the alien to see pink and black surround him and Virgil in a protective metal shield. 

They landed on the ground with a loud crash. The wind stopped rushing in his ears and Roman took a deep, gulping breath. He could hear Virgil’s raspy breathing beside him and feel as they adjusted their hold on Roman, wrapping their arms around Roman’s center. 

The careful pink paws around them released the two, the night sky now being the only thing that covered them. 

“Roman! Virgil!” Patton called. 

Virgil released Roman and the two looked around for Patton’s voice, awaiting their own hug from him. Roman saw Patton down on the ground and he shuffled away from Virgil and slid down the pink zord’s side, holding his arms out once he reached the ground and catching Virgil as they too fell down the cool metal. 

Patton rushed the two and wrapped his arms around them, his helmet was off and he was bleeding but Patton didn’t seem to care. 

“Patton?” Janus’ voice asked. 

The three turned to see Janus, he looked off but otherwise okay and he ran forward to them. The four embraced, all crying and aching. 

“Ah!” Logan’s pained gasp caused all of them to look over. Jemina was still there, her sword digging into Logan’s side. 

Patton was the first to react. He drew and arrow back and fired it through her back, the four of them running forward to the Blue Ranger and the General. Jemina stumbled forward, her sword pulled away from Logan and she rounded on the group. Patton threw his bow on the ground and punched her square in the jaw. The general fell on her back gasping and Patton put a knee to her chest. 

“I’m done letting you people take the ones I love.” He told her, anger and pain seething from his voice. 

Patton yanked the arrow out of her chest and let her disintegrate into dust. His knee falling hard on the cement. Roman had helped Logan up and was trying to stall the bleeding from his side but Logan only scampered away from him tore his helmet off, wrapping himself around Patton. A ways away Remus shouted Janus’ name and ran over to him, pulling his boyfriend in. 

“I couldn’t stop her Jan. I-I could-couldn’t god I couldn’t stop her and she-fuck Jan she-oh god!!” Remus choked and cried. Janus didn’t say anything in response and Remus stifled his cries in Janus’ shoulder. 

“Roman.” Virgil said quietly. 

“Yeah.” Roman turned around to face them. 

He noticed they weren’t looking up at him, instead looking down at their wrists. There, circling around the base of their hands were two bands, bands not unlike the red one that was indefinitely attached to Roman’s right wrist. These however were very different, instead one black and one purple, and unlike when Roman had gotten his Virgil showed no indication of being happy. In fact they looked utterly and completely broken. Their eyes watered and mouth shook as they tried to hold in their sobs. 

“Roman.” Virgil’s eyes shot up to him, almost pleadingly. “Fuck.”


End file.
